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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 and where we provide win-win situations for all of our stakeholders and clients.
So in last week’s blog, I talked about
WE WANT MY MOM AT HOME AND LET HER APPROACH END OF LIFE AT HOME. WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link below this video
In today’s video blog. I want to answer another question from one of our readers and clients. And today’s question is, my dad is 67 and she’s in ICU with a spinal cord injury, on a ventilator, with tracheostomy and on dialysis.
We Want our Dad to Be Out of ICU But We Don’t Want Him in a Nursing Home Because They Can’t Look After a Ventilator and Tracheostomy. What Should We Do?
So, one of our readers and clients Alex writes the following email.
Hi Patrik,
My father was involved in a car accident. He suffered a C1 spinal cord injury. He was in kidney failure prior to the car accident, and he has required dialysis three times a week.
At the moment, he’s in ICU, on a ventilator with the tracheostomy, and he’s requiring daily dialysis because of his kidney failure and his Complex pre-medical history and his long stay in ICU with long periods of hypotension that hit the kidneys further.
Now, we’ve been in ICU for about three months and the ICU experience is horrible. And we want my father out of ICU as quickly as possible.
Now, at this point in time, we are thinking of obviously the spinal rehabilitation facility, but it looks like it’s difficult to get into a spinal rehabilitation facility. And we don’t really want to send him to a nursing home because they can’t look after a ventilator and the tracheostomy.
So, we have already told them that the option to go to a nursing home is not an option for my father. He’s only 67 years of age. And obviously they don’t seem to be very concerned and they just want us out of ICU.
So given that he’s a quadriplegic and he needs a regular dialysis and he also has regular episodes of desaturations and his blood pressure keeps going down a lot what are our options?
At the moment, I am actively contacting rehabilitation centers that accept patients with ventilation and tracheostomy, but with the dialysis, they are refusing to take him. And they’re basically suggesting that he’s not ready for rehabilitation, even though they haven’t even assessed him.
We are stuck between a rock and a hard place. What should we do?
From Alexander.
Hi Alex,
Thank you so much for writing in Alex!
This is a tricky situation, obviously with a C1 spinal injury, that’s a very serious situation, and I’m very sorry to hear that your father is in such a difficult situation, especially with the dialysis requirement as well.
But I believe in your and your father’s situation, there’s definitely light at the end of tunnel. You should be seeking some spinal rehabilitation for C1 spinal injuries, and then get your father ready for home care. So what does that mean and what are the steps?
Your father needs to be prepared for home care. That means he might need his home modified. He will need a wheelchair. He’ll need devices that help him in the activities of daily living and occupational therapist can help you with that.
But in terms of the medical and nursing needs in particular, I do believe a service like intensive care at home is actually best because the intensive care at home can take care of mechanical ventilation, of tracheostomy and can take also care of the dialysis.
Now, I assume, hopefully your dad might go back to dialysis three times a week in the future as well. But with the ongoing hypotension in ICU, you may not be able to get off the dialysis, or you may need the dialysis daily for quite some time to come.
But your best option really is intensive care at home services, because then you will have intensive care nurses, 24 hours a day, and you can feel safe that qualified ICU nurses are looking after the ventilation, the tracheostomy and the dialysis side of things and improve your dad’s quality of life at home rather than being stuck in ICU or rehabilitation.
I’m really not surprised that your father hasn’t got a good experience in ICU and that you’re describing, this is horrible. And you know, after I have worked in ICU for 20 years myself, I can certainly see why you feel that way, but the best way to go home is find a spinal rehab, and then go home with intensive care at home.
Check out intensivecareathome.com for more information and that is your best next step.
I hope that helps Alex. And we’ll go from there. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Take care for now.
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].
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, Sunbury, 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
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.