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Quick Tip For Families In ICU: Should You Go To LTAC From ICU With Ventilation Or Tracheostomy?

by | Feb 1, 2024 | Uncategorized

This article was posted on the Intensive Care Hotline website on April 1, 2022. The article was written by Patrik Hutzel who is a critical care nurse consultant. You can view the full article o the Intensive Care Hotline website here: https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-icu-should-you-go-to-ltac-from-icu-with-ventilation-or-tracheostomy/

Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

Today’s tip is about, should you go from ICU to LTAC if you have ventilation and tracheostomy? And you might say, Oh, I’ve seen a similar video before, and it’s pretty probably an endless topic. And I could probably do another 10 videos about this topic, but that’s how I think how important it is why I’m doing another video about this today.

Now, the reason for my video today is simply that I had an email yesterday from a subscriber. And I just simply want to read out the email to you and want to then evaluate after I read out the email.

So, here’s an email from Tiffany. Tiffany says,

Hi Patrik,

My mom was moved from an ICU to an LTAC on February the 8th. It’s been a complete nightmare ever since.

This LTAC had her drugged up so bad for two weeks. She couldn’t do any weaning trials to wean off the ventilator/tracheostomy. Once we got that stopped, she started another trial and did great on it.

Then, my mom was saying for four days, she didn’t feel well. I flipped my kid and made them check her from head to toe. She now has an infection in her sputum. She, again, can’t do the trials with an infection in her already fragile lungs. I want to move back to ICU, but they’re now saying, no beds available anywhere. And she has to be deemed medically necessary to be transferred back.

I need help to get my mom proper medical attention. This place is killing her. She was better when she first got there.

Any advice would be great.

From Tiffany

Well, Tiffany, thank you so much for sending this email because this email really confirms everything that I’ve been saying for many years, that nobody should ever go from ICU to LTAC. Now, you look at LTAC reviews online, they’re shocking. We have literally, over the years, hundreds of people begging us, helping them get out of LTAC.

Now, this is mainly for our viewers in the U.S. because in other countries, there are no LTACs. Patients, generally speaking, are being weaned off the ventilator in ICU, and that’s how it should be. Or if they can’t be weaned off the ventilator in ICU, they should go to our service Intensive Care at Home, and you should check out intensivecareathome.com for more information there.

Now, why should you not go to LTAC? Okay, let me break this down for you.

In intensive care, when someone is ventilated with a tracheostomy, patients have everything they need. They have intensive care nurses, intensive care doctors. In the U.S., they have respiratory therapists, physical therapists. In other countries, they have all the ICU nursing, ICU medical skills that are needed for someone on a ventilator with a tracheostomy.

For someone with a ventilator and a tracheostomy, they should not go anywhere else but to stay in ICU, with the exception of Intensive Care at Home. Because Intensive Care at Home provides a genuine alternative to a long term stay in intensive care for ventilation and tracheostomy. Not the case in LTAC, not the case in LTAC.

LTAC cannot look after ventilated patients with tracheostomy because they don’t have intensive care nurses. They don’t have intensive care doctors. Their staff are not trained on ventilation and tracheostomy, let alone trained on weaning ventilation and tracheostomy. LTACs claim that they’re trained to wean people off the ventilator and tracheostomy. Now, this email that I just read out to you is another testimony that they are not geared up.

Look it up online, Google LTAC reviews in your area. If you’re in the United States and you will get the reviews. And they’re just shocking. You can read case studies on our website, where we helped families in LTAC. And it’s just shocking stories.

Now, bear in mind when someone is critically ill in intensive care, they are as vulnerable as they can ever be. In my mind, and in my books, and with over 20 years of having worked in intensive care, it is insanity sending someone to LTAC that is that vulnerable, right?

If someone is in intensive care, they’re as close to death as they will ever be. And then you’re sending someone in a critical condition to an LTAC where the skillset from intensive care drops to a better version of a nursing home. Let me repeat that. Someone goes from an intensive care, on life support with mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy, that is life support. And patients in intensive care are often on other mechanisms of life support as well. I’ve done videos and blog posts about this.

They’re going from multiple mechanisms of life support to an LTAC, which is a better version of a nursing home. That is insanity. Someone who’s critically ill needs a team that gets to know the patient and gets to help the patient to get better. Sending them to another facility is just insanity.

Now, here is what you probably don’t know yet. Often when people get sent into LTAC, they are often, far away, hours away from the hospital. Chances are, just like with this email that I just read out to you, a patient after ICU goes to LTAC, bounces back into ICU. Happens over and over again because they’re not fit for LTAC. And when they go back to ICU, they might end up in another ICU. So, within a few weeks, sometimes within a few days, a patient goes from ICU to LTAC into another ICU. Seen it hundreds of times.

Again, making an already fragile, insane situation even worse. Don’t say that I haven’t warned you. Do not say that I haven’t warned you. I’ve done many, many videos about this. Many, many blog posts. Many, many case studies. Do not tell that I haven’t warned you. Do not go to LTAC, simple as that.

LTACs are created to save money, they’re not created for clinical need. Let me say that again. LTACs are created to save money. They are not created for clinical need. If you have a loved one in intensive care, you need to look after the clinical need, first and foremost.

I hope that illustrates once again that your loved one should not go to LTAC. Before I forget about it, I should also mention there are no specialists in LTAC, okay? If your loved one has a heart condition, or kidney condition, or liver condition, you need a specialist involved. You don’t only need intensive care to manage life support. You also need a specialist if you have a heart condition, lung condition, liver condition, kidney condition, the list goes on. You need the specialists, and they are in hospitals, not in LTAC.

That is my quick tip for today.

It’s actually not a quick tip. We are minute seven now, but nevertheless, it’s so important. And here is the evidence from that email.

Okay, if you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or simply send us an email to support@intensivecarehotline.com.

Like this video, comment below what you want to see next or what questions you have from this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel, click the notification bell, and share this video to everybody that needs to know about this.

Take care for now.

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