Question

The family comments that the patient who has a tracheotomy is coughing and wants to know what you can do about it. What will you tell the family?

Answer 1

The family comments that the patient who has a tracheotomy is coughing. They want to know what to do with this....

1. Try to explain the basics of tracheotomy.

It is an opening that is directly assessing the patient's windpipe from the neck. It is convenient and less harmful and there is less chance of infection than an endotracheal tube.

2. Try to explain the reason behind the coughing and what measures they can take to stop this.

The tracheostomy tube is lying inside in your windpipe through the neck to ensure continuous airflow and to prevent obstruction, but it is a foreign body. It may sometimes irritate the windpipe, which resulted in coughing. It is quite normal but if the patient coughing frequently then there may be sputum or respiratory secretions present in the windpipe.

In this case, you need to suction the tract via the tracheostomy tube in the aseptic method.