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This blog post was first published at our sister site www.intensivecarehotline.com a support and resource website for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care
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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from www.intensivecarehotline.com , where we instantly improve the lives of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can have real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
In this week’s blog I want to show you “Why you must make up your own mind about your critically ill loved one’s situation in Intensive Care even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse!”
Can you really trust the Intensive Care team?
If your loved one has been admitted to Intensive Care and is critically ill, you may at first feel very emotional with your rational brain having gone out of the door. You may feel like things are beyond your control, you may feel vulnerable and you maybe struggling with the situation if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! After all other people are running the show and you may feel like they are trying to keep you at arms length…
Your critically ill loved one’s health and their life is left in the hands of the Intensive Care team, whom you trust. But wait a second, do you really trust them? Or asked differently, can you really trust them?
The answer to that question is that you should always question and also second guess the prognosis, the care and most of all the motives of the Intensive Care staff. Why do I say this?
Why financial budgets and politics play a crucial role in the positioning of the Intensive Care team
After more than 15 years of Intensive Care nursing experience, I dare say that I have seen it all and I have seen how politics, financial budgets, other admissions awaiting an ICU bed in a fully occupied Intensive Care Unit and negative and limited mindsets play a crucial role in how your critically ill loved one’s prognosis and situation maybe presented to you. Keep in mind that very few other organisations are as political and institutionalized as Hospitals and Intensive Care Units are.
Here’s a real world example
I’ll give you an example so that you know and understand what I’m talking about and why it’s so important for you to make up your own mind and think for yourself, so that you can read and interpret situations in Intensive Care correctly!
Let’s just say your 85 year old father has been admitted to Intensive Care with low blood pressure after he collapsed at home. On the way to hospital, the ambulance crew had to place him into an induced coma and they started him on a ventilator as he couldn’t continue breathing by himself. Your 85 year old father has previously been independent and he quite enjoyed life at his age, even though your mother and his wife had passed away about 12 months earlier.
After you have been notified by the Hospital that your father has been placed in an induced coma in Intensive Care and is ventilated, the Intensive Care team wants to meet with you and your siblings and the picture they are painting is all about how poor the prognosis is and continuing treatment wouldn’t be “in the best interest” of your father. The Intensive Care team is also talking about “limitation of treatment” and “Not for resuscitation” if your father’s heart would stop…
You are absolutely shocked, not only by your father’s admission to Intensive Care and the condition he is in and you are even more shocked by what you hear from the Intensive Care team. Your father has always been independent and just because he now had a bit of an episode that brought him to Intensive Care, doesn’t mean that he won’t get back to his normal health and his good Quality of life. After all he’s a very strong man and he can deal with adversity and he will most likely bounce back. And who are those Doctors anyway to tell me and my siblings that “it is in the best interest” of my father to limit treatment. The Intensive Care team doesn’t know our father and they don’t know how vital he is. You’re quite angry at the Intensive Care team, because of the way they present the situation to you and to your family.
This is just a quick scenario that happens very often in Intensive Care and because of the limited mindset, the limited time, the limited financial budget and/or because of the limited financial viability and more often than not, because of the unwillingness to deal with the “85 year old man in bed 7”, whilst there are more exciting and interesting cases awaiting admission to Intensive Care.
The moving parts in the background that nobody is telling you about!
It’s therefore crucial that you read between the lines what is being said and what is not being said to you and to your Family. The Intensive Care team knows pretty much from the start how they position themselves and what they tell you, after all they have an agenda, despite providing Patient care. The Intensive Care team has no real interest in giving you control over the situation and they also don’t want to tell you about the moving parts in the background that implicitly or explicitly drive their agenda and their positioning!
Don’t be oblivious to the moving parts in the background and position yourself correctly!
Most Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are totally oblivious about the moving parts in the background and they blindly trust the Intensive Care team. This is especially difficult and can be detrimental if your loved one’s admission to Intensive Care is not straightforward and if your loved one is very critically ill and if his or her life is in danger! The longer your critically ill loved one is expected to stay in Intensive Care, the more important it is that you have a strong positioning you so that you have power, control and so that you can influence decision making! The minute the Intensive Care team is painting a “doom and gloom” picture and is talking about “withdrawal of treatment” you need to seriously consider why they are positioning themselves like that. Do they want to save money? Do they need your critically ill loved one’s bed for another admission?
If you want to have power and control and if you want to influence decision making fast you can do so by discovering more FREE information and more in-depth insight that you must know whilst your loved one is critically ill or is dying in Intensive Care, sign up for your FREE membership and get your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT. In your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT you’ll learn how to speak the “secret” Intensive Care language so that the doctors and the nurses know straight away that you are an insider and that you know and understand what’s really happening in Intensive Care! (visit intensivecarehotline.com to download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report NOW!)
In this free report you’ll also discover
• how to ask the doctors and the nurses the right questions
• how to eliminate fear, frustration, stress, struggle and vulnerability even if your loved one is dying
• 5 “killer” tips& strategies helping you to get on the right path to control, power and influence in your situation
• you’ll get crucial ‘behind the scenes’ insight so that you understand what is really happening in Intensive Care
• how you need to manage doctors and nurses in Intensive Care(it’s not what you think)
With your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report you’ll also get 4 other FREE reports and the reports you will be receiving are
- The 6 questions you need to ask the most senior doctor in Intensive Care
- 10 things you didn’t know doctors and nurses are talking about while you are not at the bedside with your loved one
- the 7 answers to the 7 most FAQ if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care
- 9 myths of being a critically ill Patient in Intensive Care
Thank you for tuning into this week’s blog and I’ll see you again in another update next week! Make sure you also check out our “your questions answered” section or send me an email to [email protected]
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM and I’ll see you again next week with another update!
Sincerely,
your Friend
Patrik Hutzel