My dad was admitted to the hospital on dec 26. He spent 3 days on nasal cannula and oxygen at a high level. They decided to intubate him and he has been on a ventilator for 10 days now. Yesterday they tried to wean him off the sedation, but they said it didn’t go very well and had to put him back on 40% oxygen on the ventilator. My question is, I’m scared with the amount of time he’s been on. Is the longer your on a ventilator not a good sign? Any recovery stories from being on a ventilator for an extended period of time? Thank you!
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Ren2985
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It's an awful time for you and your family, made much worse by not being able to go in and visit . My husband was admitted with Covid in the first wave and was ventilated for nearly 6 weeks. At this stage he was the longest in our hospital with Covid in ITU.
He struggled each time they tried to wean him off, I have lost count of the fail sedation holds they performed. My husbands oxygen levels were much higher than your dads, we got there eventually.
My husband has a long road to recovery, but is doing really well, happy to give you more details if you want them.
This group is full of survivors from being ventilated , please take comfort they have learnt so much from the 1st wave and your dad will be getting excellent care .
If it’s comforting to know, I survived 57 days being intubated and another 30+ days having various assisted breathing mechanisms trachy, PEEP, CPAP, nasal cannula & nebulisers.
Everyone feared the worst but I came through ok. Sometimes comparison is the enemy of hope so try not to frighten yourself. We are all different, if your father is stable that is great. Wishing you all well moving forward.
Hang on in there it’s sometimes a long road with covid my dad was nearly 11 weeks on ventilator back in March with covid . Lots of ups and downs , but he was actually home after 10 days off the ventilator . Been home since June , getting stronger every day .
The hospital may do a tracheotomy which sound so scary , but it’s easier for the patient to be weaned off the ventilator. Take each day as it comes and take care of yourself also xx
Yes he did have a infection probably two weeks after being on ventilation , caused problems keeping his temperature down. Treated but I think it’s pretty common in ICU what with all the lines , drips ect . Dad also had a blot clot in his jugular vein caused by one of the lines . Just as he was almost ready to come off the ventilator he managed to pick up ventilated associated pneumonia.
But the main thing is he’s here to tell the tale .How’s your dad doing today ? Xx
After waking from coma I had numerous infections which caused fever, poor saturations- CMV, VRE, MSSA, EBV, HHV6 & glandular fever to name some. I got through them all.
My dad had Covid back in October and spent almost a little more than 3 weeks on a ventilator. He had kidney failure during this and had to have dialysis. The first time they tried weaning him off sedation and removing the ventilator was around week 2 he had a setback and had to go back to 100% on the ventilator. Then it took him another week to get back down to 40%, got a tracheostomy done and then was successfully weaned from both the sedatives and the ventilator. He spent about 3 weeks in rehab and is now home. He no longer needs rehab, oxygen or any kind of medication. Thankfully he is pretty much back to normal.
Hi Jbujanda82 firstly I hope your dad is making a solid recovery. I read your post and it seemed to be a very summary path which my father has taken, especially the setback at week 2!
Couple of question I had, what age and ethnicity is your father?
At what pint did you see real positive signs of the infection being reduced and the ventilator support being removed?
Would really appreciate your response as you can imagine the things which we are going through at this time.
My dad is Hispanic and is 63. He was intubated on October 20th and on November 11th he was finally well enough (again) to have his sedation lowered. That is the day he opened his eyes and became somewhat alert. Once we got the call from the nurse letting us know his eyes were opening and he was ok (not having a bad reaction) is when we finally felt some relief. The very next day is when he had the trachy done.
The only times he went up on his oxygen requirements was when he had the setback, he was back at 100% with a peep of 18 (from 40% peep of 5) and when he was moved to the LTACH he went from 40% to 60% for a day then came back down until he was weaned.
A year ago I was still ventilated/ sedated having gone into ICU before Xmas and prior to a heart op. I already had pneumonia and possibly sepsis. Luckily I had a trachy early on. It took a long time to ween me off and I kept getting infections. I came home mid March and I’m still recovering.
My friend has been in hospital for 6 months. She's 62. She was on a ventilator for 3 months. She's had quite a few infections and setbacks since she awoke. She's still in the hospital, there's no signs of her coming home yet, but, she's doing really well. Eating, watching TV on her phone, reading, having Zoom calls. I pray your dad will soon be in the same position as her xx
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