my father had an in hospital cardiac arrest on the morning of 17th December 2022. He was without oxygen for 10-15mins. He was sedated and put in an induced coma. When they lowered the sedation to wake him up after 10 days he started to get seizures and so they had to put him back to sleep. He had 2 EEGs and both came back as abnormal. The did a CT scan and it showed that there is something but can’t tell what. They did an MRI now and it’s saying he has Hypoxia brain injury. The have not said to what extent.They want to remove him from the ventilator and end his care today 06/01/23 but he has only been off the sedation for a week. He has opened his eyes slightly at the start on day 2 when they took him off sedation. Then a few days later he has opened them fully but stares into space. I think that’s ridiculous they’re rushing his end of care and he needs more time to wake up. How can we argue all of this and get them to postpone making the final decision??? How are the allowed to make this decision with no warning? We just want to give him sometime but they’re being adamant.
Thank you for any help or advice.
UPDATE: He is stable for now and the ICU doctors/consultants will be seeking an external opinion on the situation.
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Starlight2000
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Hi..my father suffered hypoxia from a stroke and seizure in September and it was unknown the amount of time he was was without oxygen… he was in an induced coma for several weeks. We fought like hell to keep him in the ICU, multiple meetings with Drs and constantly recording everything that happened during the day in a journal..we were the ones who seen small improvements and did not allow them to give us end of life talk (he was only alone during the night as we pulled shifts daily).. you will need to stand firm with the icu team Drs and do not fold- do your research, go to intensive care hotline.com and watch videos, read up on everything..that site really helped us. They said my dad would not recover other than vegetative state because he was not showing purposeful movement and after 58 days my dad was able to go home! Make sure they are doing physical therapy daily even with his breathing tube or tracheostomy. The hospital is a business-it’s about money. You are his advocate and this is your one chance. Stay strong and I hope your dad recovers.
Thank you so much for your reply. I hope your father is doing well now. At the moment, we have asked for a second external opinion on the situation. Therefore, my father is stable for now and we put up a fight too. They were pushing us so much and we are going to give him a shot at getting better. I have spoken to the intensive care hotline and we were given plenty of advice and I will be seeking a medical lawyer moving forward. I am happy to hear your story as they tried to convince us we were awful people for prolonging the situation. Tomorrow I will be enquiring about physical therapy you mentioned with the breathing tube and tracheotomy. We will definitely be fighting for him. He deserves a shot. Thank you again for all the advice.
I would say maybe a medical lawyer for advice. I died twice and recovering from a sepsis coma. Was told the doctors never thought I would leave ICU but here I am able to drive.
Thank you for your reply. I hope you are good now. We are seeking a medical lawyer at the moment and my father is stable for now. We have pushed the ICU doctors to get an external opinion on the situation for now.
If it is discovered you have an hypoxic brain injury, you can suffer memory loss, experience personality changes, have poor judgement & have an inability to focus. You can have problems with balance & coordination, you might have speech & swallowing difficulties, blurred vision, spasticity or muscle spasms.
I’d say, to some extent, I experience all these. Although never confirmed Hypoxic injury - CT scan, MRI scan and blood tests can show this. My respiratory system and heart failed, I couldn’t tolerate intubation for a time, so kept alive by ambu bag
I am so sorry to hear this. I hope you are doing well now.
sorry to hear about your father. My husband was 45 mins down no oxygen and suffered hypoxic brain injury.
He went through various stages of being in a coma to slowly responding. It takes time like weeks to months . Just don’t rush give him time . Drs hospitals get paid for organs so they rush the process and switch off life support. Refuse it. Your father will hopefully make a recovery soon . .
Thank you for your kind words and your reply. I am glad to hear your husband is doing well now.
Could you please talk about the various stages of your husband's recovery from his coma? What were the little improvements he made, and how long did it take him to make each one?
The Doctors/Consultants at this hospital are being very difficult and it’s adding extra stress to the family. However, we will do everything in our power to fight for him and give him time to get better. We are considering moving him to a private hospital but from our current understanding they have a say in this so we slightly worried about that too. We will be getting a lawyer involved in this on Monday tomorrow and checking all of this.
Did you ever experience unpleasant doctors who pushed you into end-of-life care? How did you handle them or battle them if you did?
Sorry for asking so many questions. Thank you for all your help.
please see my full reply to starlight. Good luck with your journey. There is no real recovery it’s small gains we had some recovery and then a decline .. And living with disability with lots of challenges. Be prepared for some areas of loss . And lots of therapy etc and teams to help . It’s also a full on care package .
some drs are very pushy and kept reminding me of thier 25 year experience and how sure they were my husband would be a vegetable if he survives the injury.
We held on and refused the end of life switch off . Just say it’s against your moral values beliefs or you spoke to survivors in a similar condition.
The coma stages were from 1 -15 can’t remember which order but started from head movements only , then eyes wide open ( nothing else ) to moving limbs , yawning etc grimacing etc . Took 6 months of seeing little changes . After 6 months he started to show more improvement like smiling in dream or laughing etc and tracking me with his eyes as I moved around the room .
No verbal or communication. Just silence .
He eventually came out of coma when he was at home with familar home smells etc noise . 9+ months.
He’s cognitive behaviour was classed as v good understanding and to a level he understands scarcasm and jokes etc . He had a memory loss but could remember me and our child . And his younger days .
Physically he suffered more so required a lot of therapy. Had it not been for his kidneys injury ( he’s end of life now ) I’d say he would have benn ok ish and wheelchair bound ( lack of therapy as covid 2 years so no support)
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your advice. Please tell me the year this all happened and whether it happened in the UK. I merely ask because I'm not sure what laws have altered, etc.
The doctors we are working with are really demanding, and our case is in the UK. What other means did you employ to deter them from promoting the topic of end of life? Can we simply disagree and say we know of cases in which people have recovered and they will drop it. At the moment they are not dropping it and wanting to arrange meetings. I simply worry about what they will do or what authority they will have in instances like this. Currently, they have an extremely poor prognosis.
Your husband and our father share a lot of similarities. Even though he has just been free of sedation for two weeks, he has already started snoring, yawning, and opening his eyes while staring out into space. He made a small amount of head movement and a small amount of foot movement, but doctors and nurses categorise all of these as involuntary movements.
2019 it happened and yes we were told same involuntarily movements. It’s BS stick to your guns and refuse switching off . Took 2 months for head turning and eyes opening, 3-4 months for yawning stretches and grimacing. You can get reactions of strong emotions if you start using cold flannel etc on forehead or tickle feet etc . Use lemon juice drop on lips or tip of tongue to get reaction also . Or a garlic flav etc what they like dislike . This will tell you that the person is still able to react .
5-6 months lots of stretching and facial expressions and eye opening etc looking around tracking yoo or nurses . Respond to loud sounds and ringtones phone or other real sound’s playing .
6-9 months more reactions and laughter or smiles or crying etc
9-12 months that’s when they start to emerge and come out of coma . It took this long for my hubby.
Then the journey began of what the tbi left behind. Each person is individual. Some lose memories some personality or physical attributes. Tbi is not great it will affect some or most of the body . Be prepared for a long 5-10 years of recovery or severe disability.
unfortunately for us it affected the organs heart kidney etc and we have lost him .
Good luck with your journey.
I played lots of familiar sounds daily ( rain fall, thunderstorms, phone ringing, ft call notifications, his usual day to day sounds of traffic ( he was on the road a lot and used his phone hence ). And dog’s barking to ducks quacking in the park . To remind him of our walks . I also was cheeky and sprinkled a drop or two on his forehead to run on his cheek as I played rain sounds . He automatically picked his arm up wiped it off in annoyance . These little things gave me the confidence that he was still ‘ there ‘ and just needed his brain to ‘ fix or create new pathways to communicate. I also used a therapeutic box of smells and taste . Little boxes of powder items for taste . Sugar coffee garlic powder strawberry milkshake etc
Added a pinch on his tongue so he used to lick this and respond . Please don’t do this whilst he’s lying down and no liquid as he will not swallow. Just a pinch to remind him of taste . Smells you can spray on a cloth to waft under his nose . Dettol, perfume cigarettes? Or anything else familiar. Keep doing daily therapy and you will get to a point where he reacts . Record on video too to show drs as they would not believe that my husband laughed at a joke ! Said he understood nothing. Trust your gut and love for him .
I pray you get results soon and do update here as we all are in the same situation. Love to hear about success stories so others feeling lost can gain hope .
Also, thank you for the different ideas and ways you mentioned helped your partner to come around. I have started to prepare some things he might remember the smell of. Hopefully it starts to work. I will update you.
Thank you I wish him a fast recovery and all my prayers to you too.
My younger brother got a cardiac arrest on January 10th 2020. He was out of oxygen for 42 minutes. Yes,you read that right. This resulted in hypoxic brain injury from lack of oxygen to the brain and ischaemic stroke from lack of blood flow.He was put in an induced coma,was tracheostomized,got a multi drug resistant infection on day 3,he spent 2 weeks in ICU and about 90 days in hospital.
We had to fly him back to our country Kenya from Dubai. just a short while before flights were cancelled during COVID. It was a crazy experience. We had to learn super fast on the go matters basic care giving for him.
On the morning during Easter weekend in 2020, the nurse found him having jerked off the tracheostomy from his neck. My other brother(Tim) was called (we're 3 boys,am the first born) and we were scared shitless. Tim responded swiftly and dashed there. He immediately began a session with the ENT via WhatsApp video to try to put back the tracheostomy in vain. We even got a nurse from ICU in a nearby hospital but the hole had already closed up. Damn,we were ****ing scared. It was like a movie in real life. The ENT advised to monitor swallow and if any fever comes just dash to ICU (in case of AP(Aspiration Pneumonia)).
He made it through safely and it healed properly without any danger. It's been a crazy and mind blowing journey in different levels. It totally changes your perspective towards life.
Long story short, he's still recovering from the above and still has full time care giver. Still bedridden with daily physiotherapy for motor enhancement.
He's also on a plant based diet to enhance his immunity and regeneration. He's on daily meds for nuero and cardiac management. His speech is slurred,his long term memory seems intact. He knows all of us even old friends who come to visit. He enjoys when his family come to visit. Various parts of the brain need restoration; memory, movement, language, speech etc
It's been a journey. It still is... We're celebrating exactly 3 years today since the incident on 10/01/2020. We're positive on restoration, neurogenesis and general cellular regeneration.
Did he go into cardic arrest due to lack of oxygen? What was the cause of him having no oxygen for that long? Did he have any white blood cells or just a active brain stem? How is he now?
I appreciate your response. The news about your brother makes me really sad. I wish him well right now.
You underwent a terrifying experience. You dealing with it must have been really difficult.
I wish him quick healing and recuperation.
We are still in the early stages with my father, so it is still quite frightening, and the hospital where he is being treated in the UK is being tough, which makes things much more difficult.
Do you have any tips on what to do to help him become more alert?
What are the neuro and cardiac management pills that he is on? Can you tell me more about them please?
Thank you again and sorry for late response We are dealing with something new everyday.
He was leading a normal life and just collapsed one day but no one could assist him until a local medic was around. It took 20 minutes for the ambulance to get there and 22 minutes for them to resuscitate him. I have clearly indicated how he is now. Read again.
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