Tracheotomy means that a trachtube - a tube made of plastic or silver - by surgery is placed into the windpipe. A tracheotomy is performed if a patient for some reason cannot breathe or get enough oxygene the normal way.
This may be caused by some kind of misshape preventing the air to pass the windpipe, by laryngectomy due to primarily cancer, by neuromuscular diseases demanding constant breathing support, or by lung-diseases making the patient ventilator-dependant or dependant on other kinds of breathing-support full- or part time.
A tracheostomy can be temporary or permanent, sometimes a child grows out of his/her breathing difficulties, sometimes the tracheostomy might be closed at the same time as a misshape is surgically repaired.
Tracheotomy and ventilator-treatment or the technical breathing-aid CPAP is less dramatic nowadays than it used to be. In earlier years tracheotomy and other kinds of breathing support were something to avoid at all cost and when it was not avoidable longterm stay in hospital was the only alternative.
But breathing-support is not a cathastrophe and the need for breathing-support does not have to mean a constant stay in ICU! A home-ventilator may provide a person with a lung-problem with a good life. Many persons with severe lung-diseases that formerly hardly managed to get out of the house are now able to be active during daytime thanks to ventilator-treatment at night; they "load the system" with oxygene.
For kids with tracheostomy with or without other kinds of breathing support admittance to their homes is always the goal after the emergency phasis. With personal assistance and home-nursing it is fully possible to have the child at home. Adults depending on breathing support can also lead a good life at home with personal assistance and homecare.
Read more about Katarina's tracheostomy.
Tracheostomy requires certain carefulness, but you don't have to skip baths
At Aarons tracheostomy page are all information you can imagine about tracheostomy.
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