Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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 patients, and medically complex patients at home, including home TPN.
In last week’s blog, I talked about,
And I did that in a YouTube live stream. You can watch that live stream from last week by clicking on the link.
And by the way, I do regular live streams on YouTube, where I answer questions for families in intensive care and also for families in Intensive Care at Home. Go and check that out.
So today’s question is from a reader who asks,
My Mom has Motor Neurone Disease and Can’t Come off the Ventilator in ICU. Can you Help Me Bring Her Home with Intensive Care at Home?
Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from Intensive Care at Home where we provide tailor-made solutions for long-term ventilated Adults & 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 patients and medically complex patients at home, including home TPN.
In today’s video blog, I want to answer a question from one of our readers and Tracy writes,
Hi Patrik,
I came across your information while looking for a way to care for my mom at home. I found your information online, but I’ve also heard about your service from other MND (motor neurone disease) clients, because my mother has actually motor neurone disease. She is currently in ICU at the hospital, and she had a respiratory issue a few weeks ago and she needed to be intubated. And two and a half weeks later, had a tracheostomy performed.
She’s currently still in ICU where they’re trying to wean her out of ventilation dependency. She’s had multiple infections throughout her ICU stay, and because of this, the weaning process of the ventilator has not been as desired. The doctors are stating that they may not be able to wean her off the ventilator, and they’re suggesting that she might be in ICU for a long time to come. And if she can’t be weaned off the ventilator, then they think they want to “pull the plug” and end her life.
We would like to care for her at home instead. And I came across your information, and I have heard about your service from other MND (motor neurone disease) patients. My mother currently has no insurance or no support to go home. And I would like to know if your services are covered by the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme). We are in Sydney, Australia. Because of her MND (motor neurone disease), her pulmonologist and respiratory physician predicts she might need a ventilator machine for the rest of her life, plus, the tracheostomy. Please let me know if your services are covered by the NDIS and if not, what kind of costs it involves to see how we can care for my mother at home?
Regards,
Tracy
Hi Tracy,
Thank you so much for detailing your mom’s situation. And this is a situation we have seen over and over again, especially with MND or motor neurone disease. We have some clients at home that are looked after by us 24 hours a day covered by the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) that have motor neurone disease, and that will help your mom to go home on a ventilator with the tracheostomy. There’s no need for you to buy into the negativity from the intensive care team that they want to “pull the plug” and end your mom’s life. There is definitely a way forward for you.
The first step really is to look at your mom’s intake to the NDIS. And then we can help you advocate for the 24-hour nursing care. Many of our other clients have achieved that with the NDIS in similar situations. And once the funding has been approved, then we can start getting ready for home care, hire an ICU nursing team so she can actually leave intensive care and get the same level of care she gets in ICU at home. It’ll be so much nicer for you. You don’t have to go to ICU every single day. You can be with your mom at home with our nursing team.
All of our nurses are intensive care nurses with a minimum of two years ICU experience. And we can help you with setting up the equipment, ventilator, suction machine, monitor, nebulizer, spare tracheostomy tubes, oxygen concentrator or oxygen cylinders, wheelchair, and special care bed. You probably have some of that already, if your mom has had MND (motor neurone disease) for quite some time. So, the equipment side of things will probably just have to fine-tune and then get your mom home as quickly as possible so that she can have some quality of life at home, rather than in ICU.
With MND (motor neurone disease), I should say that your mom’s respiratory physician is probably right, that depending on how far the MND (motor neurone disease) has progressed, that there’s a very good chance she might need a ventilator for the rest of her life. And some of the inability of her coming off the ventilator at the moment might be simply the progression of her MND, I wouldn’t know. But this is certainly a question you should be asking the doctors, why do they think your mom is not coming off the ventilator at this particular point in time? So, I hope that helps Tracy.
You also said that your mom is 59 years of age, and that means she’s qualifying for the NDIS. Anyone below the age of 65 qualifies for the NDIS.
Now, I hope that answers your question.
If you have a loved one in intensive care, you should be contacting 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].
Also have a look at our case studies because there, we highlight more about what we can do for our clients, how clients can live at home with ventilation and tracheostomies instead of in intensive care. And you can look at our case studies.
Intensive care at home Case studies
And if you are at home already, and you need support for your loved one, and you have insufficient support or insufficient funding, please contact us as well. We can help you with all of the above.
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, we want to hear from you. Please contact us, 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, in Sunbury, in Bendigo, Mornington Peninsula, Bittern, Patterson lakes, Frankston area, South Gippsland, Warragul, Trida, Trafalgar, and Moe, as well as in Wollongong, and in Kensington, in Sydney, in New South Wales, and in Brisbane.
www.intensivecareathome.com/careers
We are an NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), TAC (Transport Accident Commission), DVA (Department of Veteran Affairs), and iCare proof community service provider in Australia. Have a look at our range of full-service provisions.
Thank you for watching this video and thank you so much for tuning into this week’s blog.
This is Patrik Hutzel from Intensive Care at Home and I’ll talk to you in a few days.