hi there. My dad has been sedated for over a week and whenever they take him off the ventilator he breathes a lot faster. They are now giving him a tracheotomy. I just wanted to know people’s experiences on how long they had them in for and if they were removed before leaving hospital etc.
Background: he went in with pneumonia on his lungs and his oxygen levels were not great. He is also currently on a kidney dialysis.
thanks in advance
Yes, they will take it out before he leaves and it's a realitively simple procedure. He won't have to be sedated. A nurse slowly pulls it out and then puts a bandage over the hole and it heals naturally. I know it sounds a bit gross, but really, it is nothing. The nurses will change the bandage periodically. I can't remember how long mine was in for but it was quite a long time (having come out of a coma). I had caught pneumonia in hospital and it took a while before they found an antibiotic that worked - but I had a lot of other issues as well. (Heart failure, sepsis, HIV, COPD, previous stroke, etc...)
I was a bit apprehensive when they wanted to give my mum a tracheostomy. But it helped wake her up and get her strong enough to breathe on her own. She had been sedated and ventilated for about 6 weeks. I think she had it in for about 7 days. Towards the end of that time she was needing it very little. Once it was out it was just left to heal. We’re in the UK so after care for the wound was pretty non existent, so it did take a little while to heal. I was worried once it was in it would be a long term thing, but they were quite keen to take away interventions as soon as they were not needed. It was a really helpful way to help her progress. She had pneumonia and went septic from it. Wishing you & your dad the best xx
Can I ask why your mum was admitted my mums currently on day 5 of trachy, she was admitted with copd exacerbation and the flu. Lungs stopped working, co2 levels were dangerously high, Kidneys stopped working so the put her on dyalisis for 2 days, she was fully sedated for 8 days with the tube down her throat but every time they tried to wake her her stats would shoot up, she hasn’t had any hard sedatives since Thursday night now and she’s slowly coming round but she’s still so tired and still doesn’t know where she is atm don’t think. It’s so scary to watch. She had a good day yesterday on cpap, and today I’m sure they’re going to try a full 12 hours on cpap. I just wish she was more coherent, hopefully the next few days she should be??
Oh bless your mum, it does take a bit of time for them to come around. I think it took a good 5-7 days for my mum to fully come around.
My mum has been home a year now, so we’ve learn a lot about what happened. But we now know she had a focal onset seizure in the morning. Followed by another in the afternoon that led to a full on tonic clonic seizure. It wouldn’t stop by itself, so they administered the emergency medicine to stop seizures and when that didn’t work they sedated and intubated her. She had high blood pressure, so they were working to get her stable before they woke her up. Then her infection markers just kept on going up, which was the pneumonia and she became septic. At the time they wasn’t sure if it was aspiration pneumonia or community acquired, but my mum said she remembers having a pain in her side before hand and she felt like that when she had a bad chest infection before. Her oxygen needs were too high to bring her around, so it took a while to find the right antibiotics. She did then have a cardiac arrest because of a blood cot. But they resuscitated her. Then did more scans and saw she had a plug in her lung that they went in to manually remove. Once they did that she rapidly improved enough for the trach. The first few days were scary on the trach as she was out of it. The consultants kept phoning me to ask what her cognitive function was like before hand. But then she gave me a look and I knew she was back. I just kept talking to her, showing her pictures and played some familiar programmes on the iPad. She’s absolutely fine now, her mobility was affected by the icu stay as she has drop foot. But she’s doing really well. Hope your mum continues to improve.
i was on a vent for 6 days and even went home with the trach in. 2 days later, my pulmonologist asked me if i wanted it out. i said yes and she just pulled it out and put gauze over the hole.
i couldn't talk w/o covering/plugging the gauze with my finger but it was almost fully closed in under 24 hours. after 48 hours, i still needed gauze for the wound but i could speak normally.
the trach/removal was the least problematic facet of the whole affair.
i hope he recovers soon
I had a tracheostomy after being intubated on respirator for just under 2 weeks. They woke me after the trach, but not sure how many days. I recovered quickly from that point. I think I had the trach in place for another 1-2 weeks.
It was easier to adjust to and breath through than I would have thought. After a week or so, once I was breathing better, they fitted a speaking valve which allowed me to speak in short phrases between breaths.
They will remove the trach before sending him home. It takes a few more weeks after removal before it completely heals. After going home, he may need to have someone help dress the wound daily (I was still a bit weak, and had residual vision problems that made it hard to see what I was doing). He will need to keep the dressing and wound dry, but plastic wrap over it works well enough for light bathing if he is careful.
It will heal in a few week and leave a small scar, but it is pretty amazing how well it heals on its own.
Hi, I was in ICU & in coma for 4 weeks 3 with a tracheostomy. It was removed before I was discharged. A community nurse looked after the dressing changes etc. I wish him well
5 years ago I was in a coma for just under 2 months I had pneumonia, sepsis and a heart operation. I wasn’t tolerating the breathe tube so a trachy was fitted which I kept in during my coma and for a couple of weeks after I came round. In my case it was removed before I stepped down (moved out of icu) it took several weeks for the wound to heal.. some people need to keep it in longer than that and some may go home with it. You can’t speak with a tracky but I had a voice box attached.
Hope this helps
I had a trachy for 12 days approx - I don’t recall what came before so I have nothing to compare.
Trachy was part of the process of removing sedation & waking me up - I remember CPAP & PEEP , nebulisers & nasal prongs. The trachy also meant that when the fitted a passy muir valve - I could speak ( faintly) I thought they were talking about some ballroom dancing whenever the spoke of the passé muir.
Anyway - trachy is a step in the right direction
42 days in COVID icu
ICU sedation 
Waking up from deep sedatives in ICU.
Dad, 77, in ICU, double pneumonia, now issues with kidneys
Pancreatitis with Ventilator + Tracheostomy
