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Hi it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME where we provide tailor made solutions for long-term ventilated Adults & Children with Tracheostomies whilst providing quality care and where we also provide tailor made solutions for hospitals and Intensive Care Units to save money and resources where we provide win-win situations for all of our stakeholders and clients.

So in last week’s blog, I talked about

IS IT TRUE THAT PATIENTS WITH DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY SYNDROME WITH A TRACHEOSTOMY HAVE A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE AT HOME RATHER THAN IN ICU?

You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link below this video

https://intensivecareathome.com/is-it-true-that-patients-with-duchenne-muscular-dystrophy-syndrome-with-a-tracheostomy-have-a-better-quality-of-life-at-home-rather-than-in-icu/

In today’s blog, I want to answer another question from one of our readers and prospective clients and Vesna is asking whether her husband can go home after a stroke and a tracheostomy to be weaned off the ventilator at home.

Can my Husband Go Home After a Stroke and a Tracheostomy To Be Weaned Off the Ventilator at Home?

So I’ll read out Vesna’s question and she writes

My husband, Steven has had a stroke last Sunday with damage to the medulla area of his brain causing limited motion and breathing issues. He was put on a ventilator on Monday night. I was told yesterday that he will be receiving a tracheostomy on Monday and that he would then be weaned off the ventilator as a next step. We don’t know how long that’s going to take.

My husband had a disability after a back and neck injury, about 10 years ago, which is sustained in a car accident. He has however, remained very active and he’s very strong. I know my husband well enough to know that he wants to come home.

He will recover so much better at home. My son and daughter in law will move in with me to help care for him as well. My son is a paramedic. My other son and daughter will be moving next door.

So the question is, from me, I want to bring my husband home. If he will die, I want him to die at home. Can intensive care at home help?

I understand that if he has a ventilator and a tracheostomy that he needs 24-hour nursing care at home with intensive care nurses, is that something intensive care at home can help with?

From Vesna.

Thank you Vesna for asking such a great question. So, I believe from what you were sharing with me, it’s very early days to look at intensive care at home. Simple reason for that is, your husband needs to have a trial to come off the ventilator first.

So you haven’t really shared what ventilator settings he’s on. You know, how well is he doing on the ventilator? Are they mobilizing him? Is he getting out of bed? Can he take steps to be weaned off the ventilator?

Now, whilst we have successfully wean patients off the ventilator at home, your husband is in the very early stages of being weaned off the ventilator and he might be off the ventilator in a few weeks, he may not. If he can’t come off the ventilator in a few weeks, you should absolutely look at service like intensive care at home.

But please keep in mind that when someone comes off the ventilator, it’s much easier to go home without a ventilator and without a tracheostomy. A recovery after a stroke, without a ventilator, and a tracheostomy can take quite some time.

If you are sending your husband home straight away with ventilation and tracheostomy it might be too complicated and it could get avoided. Just by simply giving him a couple of weeks in ICU, let them wean him off the ventilator and hopefully all goes well, then you can take him home without a ventilator and a tracheostomy and that would be the goal.

Again, if ventilation weaning fails and he still needs the ventilator and the tracheostomy, absolutely intensive care at home can take your husband home from ICU with 24-hour intensive home care nursing. So that is a great solution after your husband has failed weaning off the ventilator in ICU, but it hasn’t come to that point yet.

Another option we can provide is simply if your husband can come off the ventilator, but for whatever reason, can’t be without a tracheostomy, we can help with tracheostomy care at home as well.

So that’s it in a nutshell. Yes, we can help, but it’s too early to look at intensive care at home. Hopefully your husband will go through a proper weaning program through some proper weaning trials in ICU, and then he can come off the ventilator. And if that fails, God forbid, then you can look at intensive care at home services.

Now, if you have a loved one in intensive care and you want to go home with our service intensive care at home and if you want to find out how to get funding for our service and how it all works, please contact us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or send me an email to [email protected]. That’s Patrik, just with a K at the end.

Please also have a look at our case studies because there we highlight more about what we can do for clients, how clients can live at home with ventilation and tracheostomies and you can look at our case studies as well at our service section

Intensive care at home Case studies

And if you are at home already and you need support for your critically ill loved one at home, and you have insufficient support or insufficient funding, please contact us as well. We can help you with all of that.

And if you are an intensive care nurse or a pediatric intensive care nurse with a minimum of two years, ICU or pediatric ICU experience, and you ideally have a critical care certificate, please contact us as well. Check out our career section on our website. We are currently hiring ICU and pediatric ICU nurses for clients in the Melbourne metropolitan area, Northern suburbs, Mornington Peninsula, Frankston area, South Gippsland, as well as Wollongong in New South Wales.

www.intensivecareathome.com/careers

So we are also an NDIS, TAC (Victoria) and DVA (Department of Veteran affairs) approved community service provider in Australia. Also have a look at our range of full service provisions.

Also, we have been part of the Royal Melbourne health accelerator program in the past for innovative healthcare companies.

https://www.thermh.org.au/news/innovation-funding-announced-melbourne-health-accelerator

https://www.melbournehealthaccelerator.com/

Thank you for watching this video and thank you for tuning into this week’s blog.

This is Patrik from intensive care at home, and I’ll see you again next week in another update.