Persuading Dad to get off the ventilator

[Mol_Aud]

My Dad is in ICU in Thailand sedated and on a ventilator due to pneumonia and respiratory failure.

My auntie who is with him has said the nurses think he is able to come off the ventilator (tubes through his nose) but he basically isn't trying, presumably as its a painful and terrifying experience. He cannot talk presumably because of the incoming oxygen. He does have a history of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues but has worked most of his life and travelled alone so also has a lot of strength.

Any insights into someone who has experienced this to help me convince him would be super helpful. We want him home and better asap.

Thanks to this lovely community.

[Sepsur]

it could be that he is heavily sedated and he hasn’t a clue what is going on,…having a patient unable/willing to breathe unaided isn’t uncommon in ICU - we experience such dramatic muscle waste that we are generally exhausted to the core. Your poor Dad might just need some gentle encouragement and reassurance. Please look at ICU delirium & a guide to critical illness - see link 😊

cc-sn.org/information

[Sepsur]

it took me 11 days to come around after 57 day coma - it wasn’t that I was unwilling - I was experiencing the most horrendous hypoactive ICU delirium.

[Mol_Aud in reply to Sepsur]

Thank you so much for both messages and the link. Super helpful. X

[Mol_Aud in reply to Mol_Aud]

Sepsur he seems to think he's won against the evil nurses who restrained him. Is this the sort of thing you went through? I read the leaflet. Does it wear off and start to make sense?

He is off the ventilator, out of ICU so physically much better

[Sepsur in reply to Mol_Aud]

that sounds very much like delirium - he will have moments where you’ll think he is totally lucid, this might be interspersed with total lunacy. Mine just stopped - others can have it for weeks & months.

Great news that he is getting stronger.

[Twoblu]

They may say he is not trying but surely they cannot be sure. Maybe his body is not ready yet. It is not a mathematical guarantee of how long it takes

Talk to him hold his hand. It will happen soon enough.

Good luck

[wullie-thomson]

Hi i was on ventilator on 2021 with covid and had a lot of bad Delerium which always plays in my mind even now. I was away with the fairies when they were trying to get physios to try exercises with me and I hadn't done the toilet in over 20 days and it was pouring out of my backside. The physios put in my hospital notes I wasn't trying hard enough I have just found out. I thought they were trying to kill me at the time. What I'm trying to say is be patient with him as I was scared to breathe on my own after tracheostomy came out. The hospital didn't realise I was having Delerium late on for some reason and I remember a lot of stuff that happened to me in the coma being under sedated. I am still struggling now with my breathing. Hope he gets better soon. 🙏