Efficacy Study of Homeopathic Potassium Dichromate to Treat Tracheal Secretions in Critically Ill Patients

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients 18yrs and older * Situated in the Critical Care areas of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre including the Critical Care Unit, Cardiovascular Surgery Intensive Care Unit, Ross Tilley Burn Centre and B5/D4 intensive care units. * They will have been weaned from mechanical ventilation (eg: extubated, face mask or tracheostomy mask, minimal pressure support or CPAP, FiO2 \<0.3) but are unable to be transferred out of the unit due to excessive and/or persistent secretions for at least 48 hours. * Persistent secretions will be defined as suctioning of greater than every 2 hours or a score of greater than 20-24 "MP" per day. (In the Critical Care areas, each time a patient is suctioned, secretions are quantified on a scale of 1-3, with "MP" being mucopurulent in nature). Exclusion Criteria: * Those with evidence of untreated respiratory infections or infections treated for less than 48 hours. * Those patients on high dose steroids as defined by greater than:Fluticasone 125ug inhaler- four puffs twice daily and/or Prednisone 20mg daily orally * Patients with multiple drug and/or environmental allergies * Those patients who fail to give informed written consent. * Those patients currently enrolled in another clinical trial or who have been approached for participation in a trial during the last 30 days. * Previous enrollment in this study * Pregnancy- all women of child bearing age will be administered a pregnancy test before inclusion into the study t…