Invasive Mechanical Ventilation (ALS Respiratory Guide)

Used across the whole answer

✓Supports this

“Recording your wishes means they can be known and taken into account if you cannot say them yourself later.”

A US patient organisation guide that ends its section on making this decision with exactly this practical instruction: once you have decided, write it down so that the people around you and the professionals treating you know what you want. It is advice about being clear, not a statement of what a written wish obliges anyone to do.

Once you make your decision, be sure to fill out advance directives to make your wishes very clear to your loved ones and medical professionals.

How should I make this decision?

Used across the whole answer

Used across the whole answer

✓Supports this

“Living with a tracheostomy and ventilator means constant care, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, for the rest of the person's life.”

Sets the same expectation for anyone going on invasive ventilation, full-time connection to the ventilator and 24/7 care, and adds what skilled means in practice: paid carers have to be vent-trained professionals, and family members who take it on need full training first.

Going on invasive mechanical ventilation means that you will need to be connected to your ventilator full-time and will need 24/7 care.

What would this mean for me?

Used across the whole answer

✓Supports this

“Most people using a tracheostomy and ventilator also use a feeding tube, and for anyone without one it usually comes with the decision.”

Sets the same expectation in its summary of what invasive ventilation means for someone, listing feeding by tube alongside full-time ventilation and round-the-clock care.

You will receive nutrition through a feeding tube

What would this mean for me?

✓Supports this

“Suctioning can be needed very frequently, with one family guide describing it multiple times an hour at home.”

Describes what family carers take on once the person is home, and puts the suctioning frequency at multiple times an hour alongside caring for the tracheostomy site and keeping supplies up.

Once at home, family caregivers will need to care for the trach site, maintain supplies, and suction secretions from the airway multiple times an hour.

What type of care would I need?

Used across the whole answer

✓Supports this

“Invasive ventilation brings a higher level of ongoing care, with trained caregivers and regular attention to the tube and airway.”

Is specific about the training: paid carers have to be vent-trained professionals, and family members have to complete training before the person comes home.

If you hire caregivers, they must be skilled, vent-trained professionals.

What type of care would I need?

Used across the whole answer

✓Supports this

“Talking about this and recording your wishes before a crisis means they can be known and taken into account.”

A US patient organisation guide that closes its section on making this decision with the recording step itself: once you have decided, write it down so the people around you and the professionals treating you know what you want. It is advice about being clear, not a statement of legal effect. The same source and quote carry this point on question 06.

Once you make your decision, be sure to fill out advance directives to make your wishes very clear to your loved ones and medical professionals.

How should I make this decision?

Further reading

How invasive ventilation and advance directives fit together

Further reading

What invasive ventilation involves, to discuss with your team

Further reading

What invasive ventilation involves, including the care, communication and cost realities to weigh

Further reading

What day-to-day care with invasive ventilation involves, including suctioning, equipment and communication

Further reading

Dedicated guide to invasive (tracheostomy) ventilation and what it involves day to day

Further reading

When invasive ventilation is considered, and why discussing it early matters