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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 and children with tracheostomies. And where we also provide tailor-made solutions for hospitals and intensive care units whilst providing quality services for long-term ventilated adults and children and medically complex patients at home including BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) and Home TPN.
In today’s blog post, I want to answer a question from one of our readers who has their 33-year-old daughter in ICU and is thinking about taking her daughter home from ICU on a ventilator with a tracheostomy.
Let me read out the email from Nancy. Nancy says, “My daughter has been ventilated four times within a period of two months. She initially was intubated then extubated, was sent home and then returned back into ICU within less than 36 hours. She’s now back in ICU on a ventilator with a tracheostomy and a feeding tube and now her kidneys are not working. And I feel like the hospital wants to kill her and I’m fighting for her life and I really want to take her home. This morning, they told me that they had to bag her with a resuscitation bag because the tracheostomy had moved and blocked the airway and it also started bleeding. Please help me because I feel like the ICU is not doing what they can do and it feels like they’re trying to kill my child. Now, she has been ventilated four times within the span of three months. And with the kidneys not working, can I take her home?”
Ok, Nancy, I’m very sorry to hear about your daughter’s situation, but I do believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. We have looked after clients at home. They had regular tracheostomy bleeds as a matter of fact, and we manage them successfully at home. So, taking your daughter home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy, if that is your wish, and if that is your daughter’s wish, especially at such a young age, you should contact us as a matter of urgency and we have done that already via email, but you should call us as a matter of urgency so we can take the next steps with you and the intensive care team and take your daughter home because that’s where she might need to go next in order to recover from, the ICU stay. I mean, ICU stays are not conducive at the best of times.
So, maybe going home will help your daughter dealing also with the psychological trauma that you and your daughter have sustained with this ICU stay where she was ventilated four times. And now finally has a tracheostomy and is having a feeding tube as well. He didn’t specify whether she has a nasogastric tube or a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) tube. But in either case, we can take you to the home.
You did also mention in your email that your daughter has cerebral palsy and has regular seizures as well. So, she will need seizure management as well. But all of that is right up our alley really and is right up the work we are doing for all of our client’s ventilation, tracheostomy, long-term ventilation in particular.
Now you haven’t shared whether your daughter is close to being weaned off the ventilator, but it doesn’t sound like it if she’s having a tracheostomy bleed and if she had to be bagged, manually bagged with the resuscitation bag, so it doesn’t look to me like she’s close to being weaned off the ventilator.
But in either case, we might be able to help your daughter to be weaned off the ventilator.
We would obviously need to talk to the intensive care team and see what the plans are and what’s the safest option to get your daughter home so that she can improve her quality of life irregardless of, we could do dialysis at home. We can do the feeding at home. Of course, we can do the ventilation at home. You can have critical care nurses 24 hours a day at home assuming she’s not in a position to be weaned off the ventilator, at the moment.
So, I hope that helps Nancy to answer your question.
Now, if someone watching this also has a loved one in intensive care or at home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy or even on BiPAP or on CPAP without a tracheostomy, you should contact us at intensivecareathome.com.
Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website or simply send us an email to [email protected].
That’s not only if you’re a patient or a family in need of Intensive Care at Home, but also if you are watching this and you are working in an ICU or you’re a hospital CEO, you’re a hospital general manager or you’re a medical director in ICU, you’re a nurse manager in ICU and your beds are overflowing and some of your long-term patients would benefit from having care continued at home. At the end of the day. It’s all about win-win situations which is what we are creating here at Intensive Care at Home. Patients have choice, they have quality of life at home. In some instances, quality of end of life at home, we can create a bed for the ICU and we cut the cost of an ICU bed by approximately 50%. So, it’s a win-win all around.
Now with Intensive Care at Home, currently, we are operating in all around Australia and all major capital cities, regional and remote areas. Our clients generally speaking are funded through the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), TAC (Transport Accident Commission) in Victoria, DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs), Icare in New South Wales, NIISQ (National Injury Insurance Scheme in Queensland) and also through hospitals at times. So please contact us.
But even if you’re in the U.K. or in the U.S., please contact us as well. We are very close to starting out in the U.S. and we can already help you pointing you in the right direction.
And if you are an NDIS support coordinator or an NDIS specialist support coordinator in need of our service for your clients, for your NDIS participants, please contact us as well. Even if you’re struggling with the advocacy to the NDIS, we can help you with that otherwise we wouldn’t be in business.
And if you are at home already and you have insufficient support because you’re on a ventilator you have a tracheostomy, you have BiPAP, CPAP ventilated, Home TPN. Please contact us as well. We can help you as well.
Now and if you are an intensive care nurse and you’re looking for new career opportunities, using your intensive care nursing skills in the home, please contact us as well. We currently are looking for ICU nurses and pediatric ICU Nurses in Melbourne, Victoria Country, Victoria, Sydney, New South Wales, as well as Brisbane in Queensland.
And if you are an ICU consultant, we are currently also looking for an ICU consultant. Please contact us as well. We want to hear from you if you’re interested in the work we are doing.
If you need an NDIS nursing assessment or any other nursing assessments, please contact us as well. Our team of intensive care nurses can help you with nursing assessments. We also have a legal nurse consultant on our team and we can help you there.
Now also have a look at our membership for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home at intensivecaresupport.org. There you have access to me and my team and we answer all questions, intensive care and Intensive Care at Home related.
I already mentioned that we are doing NDIS nursing assessments and any other nursing assessments. And we are also reviewing medical records for patients in intensive care in real time, but also after intensive care, especially if you are having unanswered questions if you are, if you need closure or if you are suspecting any medical negligence.
Now, thank you so much for watching.
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Thank you so much for watching.
This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecareathome.com, and I’ll talk to you in a few days.
Take care for now.