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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com, where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies. And where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children and medically-complex adults and children at home, including home TPN (total parenteral nutrition). Also including home non-invasive ventilations such as BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) or CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure).
In last week’s blog, I talked about,
CAN MY SISTER HAVE BIPAP OR CPAP OVERNIGHT VIA TRACHEOSTOMY?
You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link below this video:
https://intensivecareathome.com/can-my-sister-have-bipap-or-cpap-overnight-via-tracheostomy/
In today’s blog post, I want to answer a question from one of our clients.
Can Intensive Care at Home Help My Sister on A Ventilator with Tracheostomy & PEG Live a Normal Life at Home?
Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com, where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated adults and children with tracheostomies. And where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality care for long-term ventilated adults and children and medically-complex adults and children at home, including home TPN (total parenteral nutrition). Also including home non-invasive ventilations such as BIPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) or CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure).
Now, in today’s blog, I want to answer another question from one of our readers and prospective clients and this is from Angie, who says, “My sister is 66-years old and has COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma and a host of many more underlying problems. She’s on a ventilator now and is having a tracheostomy put in as we speak. She lives alone and is required to use a walker for mobility. She will also have a PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube put in, because they think she won’t be able to come off the ventilator at all. Do you think she would possibly be able to live a normal life at home?” Well, that is a great question, and let me share this with you.
You’re saying, your sister has been able to walk before this hospital admission. Will she go back to walking? I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Will she live a normal life if she’s on a ventilator with a tracheostomy and a PEG tube? Probably not in comparison to what her quality of life was like before she went into hospital being ventilated with a tracheostomy and a PEG.
However, here is what Intensive Care at Home will do for your sister. It will normalize her life and it will give her a much better quality of life compared to an institutionalized, intensive care unit. I mean, by the sounds of things you’ve seen your sister in ICU, you’ve seen the institution, you know that it’s not the right place for someone potentially facing weeks or months on a ventilator, needing to be weaned of a ventilator.
Now, the other thing that you haven’t shared is, just because your sister has comorbidities such as asthma or COPD, doesn’t mean she can’t come off the ventilator. That’s hard to say. You haven’t given me enough information. Can she be weaned off the ventilator at home, for example? Those are the type of questions you need to ask, but in terms of your sister can improve her quality of life at home as opposed to an intensive care unit, no question about that.
Again, imagine your sister stuck in an ICU, in a hospital, where it’s noisy 24-hours a day. It’s never pitch black. It always feels like there’s daylight, there’s always people around, always people talking, people can’t really rest in there, which is not conducive for recovery either. In order to get back to a normal day and night rhythm, for example, which is very hard to achieve in an intensive care unit, that is something that can be achieved at home. It’s only one of the many things that can be achieved at home.
But with Intensive Care at Home, we’re bringing the intensive care into your home, especially when someone is ventilated with a tracheostomy, and it will improve your sister’s quality of life tenfold by having nurses coming into your home and looking after your sister there.
So, I guess it also comes down to quality of life. What is it? It’s a perception. It’s a subjective measure. I believe it’s not even an objective term because quality of life for your sister may be different. What you perceive as a good quality of life, what I perceive as a good quality of life. It’s really in the eye of the beholder and it comes down to establishing some goals that are realistic and achievable at home.
Also, again, you haven’t shared enough, is another option for your sister, if she doesn’t come off the ventilator, does she want to have palliative care at home? Is that something that she has considered, that you have considered, rather than having palliative care in a hospital, in ICU? Again, we believe we can do that much better at home as opposed to, in a hospital ICU. So I hope that helps you shed some light on it.
But, I would also imagine in ICU at the moment, you have limited visiting hours. If your sister stays at home, I presume, your family can come and go as you please, and you’re not holding an account to an institution. You’re holding an account to your sister’s home. There’s a very different dynamic at play here and obviously, you have a lot more control at home about what’s happening.
Again, in a hospital ICU, it’s all driven by what the hospital wants. At home, it’s driven by what you want and your sister want. So many, many advantages to go home in a situation like that, especially if your sister can’t come off a ventilator. It’s all about control, power, making informed decisions, peace of mind. And I believe that’s what Intensive Care at Home will give you and your sister, having control and say over her life.
Give us a call on one of the numbers on the top of our website. We are currently operating all around Australia, but even if you are in the U.S. and in the UK, you should contact us as well. We can help you there as well.
And if you have a loved one in intensive care or you need home care for ventilation, tracheostomy, home TPN and non-invasive ventilation such as BiPAP or any other conditions where someone is medically complex, you should contact us here at intensivecareathome.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or send us an email to [email protected].
We are NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) accredited in Australia. We provide services all around the country. We’re also DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs) approved provider, as well as TAC (Transport Accident Commission) in Victoria and iCare in New South Wales.
And if you are an intensive care nurse with the minimum of 2 years ICU or pediatric ICU experience, please contact us as well. We have vacancies for ICU nurses in Melbourne, Sydney, and in Brisbane. You should contact us.
And if you are an intensive care specialist and you’re watching this, we’re also looking to expanding our medical team. Please contact us as well. If you are interested.
Now, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home. Share the video with your friends and families and contact us at [email protected].
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Thanks for watching.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com, and I’ll talk to you in a few days.