Quick tip for families in Intensive Care: What's the quality of life after tracheostomy?

https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-intensive-care-whats-the-quality-of-life-after-tracheostomy/

Quick tip for families in Intensive Care: Whats the quality of life after tracheostomy?

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

Today’s quick tip is about a question that we get quite frequently, “What is the quality of life after a tracheostomy?”

So it really depends on the situation. You’ve got to look at it from different angles. Most of the time, when someone is in ICU and can’t be weaned off the ventilator, that’s when they end up with a tracheostomy to help wean them off a ventilator. And that is the ultimate goal.

If that can’t be achieved, then maybe goals need to be re-evaluated. And I come to the re-evaluation of goals in a minute, but let’s just quickly look at the broader picture here, “What is the quality of life after tracheostomy?”

So, when you take the notion that someone on mechanical ventilation, with a breathing tube in their mouth, or an endotracheal tube in their mouth, they need to be sedated. They need to be in an induced coma because the breathing tube and endotracheal tube are so uncomfortable with all these pressures going into the lungs.

So doing a tracheostomy, eliminates the need for induced coma and sedation, which means the quality of life is already improving. Assuming someone can’t come off the ventilator, so the quality of life is already improving just by having a tracheostomy. Assuming there are mechanical ventilation needs due to critical illness, but then, nobody wants to live with a tracheostomy for the rest of their lives. But there are people that need a tracheostomy for a prolonged period. So let’s just run through some scenarios. Maybe someone has a tracheostomy or gets a tracheostomy after a laryngectomy because they might have throat cancer or any other disease that establishes the need for a tracheostomy. So, does the quality of life improve?

Yes, it does. Because it’s used for a specific reason and then often people can go home. Well, you might say, “How can someone go home on a tracheostomy? I thought people can only live in hospitals.” Well, that’s where services like Intensive Care at Home are coming.

So, I encourage you to check out intensivecareathome.com where you will find services that help patients and families to leave intensive care, on a ventilator with a tracheostomy. Intensive Care at Home can provide tracheostomy care at home. So, all these services are available now.

So, what other situations are there where quality of life is improved with the tracheostomy? So with Intensive Care at Home, there are clients at home, for example, with a spinal injury, such as a C1 (cervical 1) or C2 (cervical 2) spinal injury. And again, quality of life there is enhanced because otherwise, patients would be in ICU only. So if patients need a tracheostomy long-term, or ventilation long-term, then a tracheostomy is actually improving quality of life because people with a service like Intensive Care at Home can actually leave intensive care. And that is definitely an improvement in quality of life, because intensive care treatment can be continued at home. Who wants to be in a hospital in an ICU? If you can go home with services like Intensive Care at Home. And I encourage you to check out intensivecareathome.com.

There are numerous other examples of how tracheostomy will improve quality of life, just hitting a few. But as a rule of thumb, tracheostomy is improving quality of life because people can go home from intensive care in particular with services like Intensive Care at Home. So, go and check out intensivecareathome.com.

That’s my quick tip for today.

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

Continuation...
https://intensivecarehotline.com/blog/quick-tip-for-families-in-intensive-care-whats-the-quality-of-life-after-tracheostomy/