Any ITU professionals around- question about ventilation?

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If someone has been on a ventilator for 2 weeks with little improvement and is now having a tracheostomy please can you explain what the advantage of this is? This relates to my auntie, mum who is next of kin doesn't seem to understand what's happening and I'm on holiday trying to support mum from a distance! I just wonder why she is having the tracheotomy? Mum thinks that then she will be able to breathe alone but I'm not sure this is correct as she presumably she can't make enough respiratory effort to do this? I appreciate I don't have all of the details but would appreciate any light people could shed on this. Many thanks

Bump- does anyone have any idea?

When people are sedated on full ventilation they tolerate oral breathing tubes, once they stabilise and sedation reduced to try and 'wake' the patient up they will automatically try and pull the tube out of their mouth.

A tracheostomy allows sedation to be lightened so the patient can then make more respiratory effort in an aim to wean them off full ventilation.

Oral endotracheal tubes are very uncomfortable and unless a patient has some neurological problems, they will not tolerate them once they are awake. Their instinct will be to grab the tube and pull it out, because it is making their throat sore. So to protect the tube, which is keeping them alive, they have to be given drugs which keep them sedated (very sleepy). The trouble with that is that the drugs also reduce the patient's ability to move, which is ideal for protecting the tube, but also causes muscle weakness, because if you don't use your muscles, they waste. Research shows that a ventilated patient loses up to 2% muscle mass per day. It can be tricky to get the right amount of sedation, so that the patient is sleepy enough to tolerate the tube, but not so sleepy that they don't make any respiratory effort, too.

A tracheostomy tube can have lots of benefits. The patient can be fully awake with a tracheostomy - no sedation is needed at all. They can have a carefully constructed weaning plan, which gradually builds up the amount of breathing effort they do and cuts down the amount of support the ventilator gives. The aim will be to get off the ventilator completely. They can start to talk using a Passy Muir Valve. They can mobilise, too.

Thank you both- such helpful advice which puts things into context