HOW LONG DOES A TRACHEOSTOMY PROLONG LIFE?

https://intensivecareathome.com/how-long-does-a-tracheostomy-prolong-life/

HOW LONG DOES A TRACHEOSTOMY PROLONG LIFE?

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In today’s episode of of the INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME video blog, I want to answer another question from one of our readers and clients and the question today is

How long does a tracheostomy prolong life?

And that is a very good question.

And the question comes about because you know many of our prospects, clients and also people that just inquiry about our service have a loved one in intensive care with a tracheostomy and they simply want to know is the tracheostomy short term is it medium term is it long term?

Now in this particular situation, we’ve got an inquiry from a family who has their 19 month old daughter in intensive care with a tracheostomy after an anoxic brain injury.

Now, unfortunately, that little girl was born and was starved of oxygen during birth and ended up with an anoxic brain injury. She spent and has spent pretty much all of her life in intensive care on a ventilator with a tracheostomy and she is on the ventilator still, after all this time,

And obviously with a lack of specialist services in the community, she hasn’t been home yet. But obviously with a service like ours intensive care at home, she can go home. But the question is how long does a tracheostomy prolong the little girl’s life or anybody’s life for that matter?

And to cut the long short a tracheostomy and ventilation can prolong life for a long time. And you know, there could be debate about it, is it the right thing to ventilate someone for years to come or should it just be stopped?

But in this particular situation, you know, the family is grounded in strong religious faith and in their mind, only God can take away life.

And it shouldn’t be up to the intensive care team to stop life support just because the intensive care team thinks that this little girl wouldn’t have any quality of life.

Now, from my experience after having worked in intensive care for decades, there is definitely no quality of life/ quality of end of life in intensive care, that’s for sure.

But also after having worked for the same time with intensive care at home, there is definitely quality of life/ quality of end of life at home, not only for the little girl, but also for the little girl’s family.

You know, in intensive care,there’s a lot of noise. There’s a high risk for infection, especially at the moment with COVID-19.

But even outside of COVID-19 times, the risk for an infection in intensive care is simply through the roof. It’s huge.

At home, you’re in a clean environment, and it’s just so much nicer, more client and family friendly and simply more holistic!

Also, intensive care units are very noisy places.

The lights are on 24 hours a day, people come and go 24 hours a day.

People have no privacy, no dignity.

Compare that with a homecare environment especially since this little girl is stable. She’s not on any inotropes or vasopressors.

She’s not on any sedation, it’s simply the ventilation and tracheostomy that’s keeping her in intensive care because obviously ventilation and tracheostomy requires the skill and expertise of intensive care and pediatric intensive care nurses.

So the only option for the little 19 month old girl is to go home with our service INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME.

So let’s look at the economics of this as well.

So an intensive care bed is around $5,000 to $6,000 per bed day. And intensive care at home is about 50% of that cost.

So, on an economic level, this is a no brainer that using intensive care at home cuts the cost of an intensive care bed by 50%...

Continue reading at: https://intensivecareathome.com/how-long-does-a-tracheostomy-prolong-life/