We Want My Mom at Home and Let Her Approach End of Life at Home. What Should We Do?

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We Want My Mom at Home and Let Her Approach End of Life at Home. What Should We Do?

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In today’s video blog. I want to answer another question from one of our readers and clients. And today’s question is, my mom is 53 and she’s in ICU with sepsis for over three weeks and the ICU doesn’t want to do a tracheostomy.

We Want My Mom at Home and Let Her Approach End of Life at Home. What Should We Do?

So, one of our readers and clients Charlotte writes the following email.

My 53-year old mother got sepsis and had been in ICU for three weeks on a ventilator. She also has leukemia and COPD. The kidneys were failing. And so they did dialysis for the last 10 days. They’ve had her in an induced coma the whole time she’s been in ICU, the liver is failing.

She went into atrial fibrillation, so they had to shock her heart back into a regular sinus rhythm. And now she contracted pneumonia. They can’t get her off the ventilator now because she keeps dropping her oxygen levels.

The ICU said her kidneys have recovered, but they have been requesting for me to sign a DNR or “Do Not Resuscitate” order and they are suggesting that a hospice might be best for my mother because they can’t get her off the ventilator.

They won’t reduce the sedation because when they do, she gets agitated and her heart rate gets up too high. They finally let me see her today and they told me if she recovered, she’d be in a nursing facility for the rest of her life.

They again asked me to put the DNR in place and Friday we are supposed to bring the hospice people in. They don’t want to try the tracheostomy because she’s already had one a couple of years ago and the scar tissue would make it difficult they said.

Last week they had the ventilator support down to 35% oxygen and she was even able to breathe with just BiPAP for two hours but then they put the ventilator back on and it’s working at 80% FiO2 now, and she’s on a PEEP of 15. https://intensivecarehotline.com/questions/my-dad-is-still-vulnerable-and-needs-a-higher-level-of-monitoring-why-did-they-put-him-at-a-spot-far-from-the-nurses-station/

We Want My Mom at Home and Let Her Approach End of Life at Home. What Should We Do?

They said she has squeezed hands and eyes on command a lot but when I’ve seen her, she was lifeless.

I asked the ICU if they can get the sedation down enough for me to see her eyes one last time before they want to bring in the hospice and they said no, because of the COVID situation.

I don’t trust the doctors and the nurses, and she never filled out any advanced care directives so I’m having to make all the decisions that I believe by mother deserves a chance and she should have everything done. I believe she should have a tracheostomy and then go home with intensive care at home. So what should we be doing?...

Continue reading at: https://intensivecareathome.com/we-want-my-mom-at-home-and-let-her-approach-end-of-life-at-home-what-should-we-do/