Instead of continually evading question at #31, feel free to answer it!
In a code blue situation the LAST thing the response team thinks is: "Gee, is this guy rich or famous? Guess we better give him extra good care."
And 40 minutes is quite reasonable for a code.
The only time I've seen a code go on for longer than that is on kids.
Why? You can often get young hearts started again.
Not often seen in obese adults with terrible CAD.
Gandolfini was a goner, and no amount of ACLS would ever bring him back.
But the Italian ER gave him a chance by at least trying.
How can I evade a question you didn’t ask me? And why would I answer a question that has nothing to do with the discussion? You are trying to add things now, to the discussion, (I think) because you know you are wrong.
Here’s the comment I responded to:
“Would they do the same for a non-celebrity?”
The correct answer to this is, yes...they would.
In fact, in the USA, a patient ... Joe Jackballs, whomever...may likely get BETTER treatment than in Italy. (I’m not brushed up on the efficiency and quality of their health system.)
I’m going to make an attempt to educate you about a code blue situation.
This happens when a patient’s breathing stops or his/her heart is in a fatal rhythm...
In the area where I live ... there is no special hospital for the Congressman. All of the hospitals are open to everyone. There’s no “extra super special care hospital” for the hoi polloi. Everyone goes to the same ones. The one I worked at, though, was the one with the advanced trauma center. That meant that we got all the critical patients.
Now ... paramedics in the field see every patient as equal. It doesn’t matter if they are transporting you out of the hood ... or out of the new development of 400,000$ homes. If you are a code blue ... you are a code blue and the same treatment is begun on you in the field and on the ride to the hospital.
While you are in the ambulance, at the ER...a “code blue - ETA 10 minutes” is called on the overhead speakers. This sets in motion a chain of events that is kind of like a ballet in its precision. If you have a more minor patient in the room that you use for codes...you move that patient to another room. If that patient is the Congressman and he has a broken leg ... he WILL find himself in another room or even in the hallway (if the ER is full) so that the code blue patient can be in the special room...
All sorts of equipment arrives... moving x ray machines...etc... to deal with the patient and try to get him/her revived...stabilized....diagnosed...its a flurry of activity while they administer drugs quickly .... sometimes administer shocks...
In the meantime, family who arrives is shown to a special room. Pastoral care has probably been called. Information about the patient is asked so that the ER can determine if the patient has a medical record on file and a chart can be generated and a computer account made to record everything done and request other things that need to be done.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Joe Jackballs or Congressman Miller... this is how it goes down.
Sometimes it ends there, in the ER, and its very sad for all involved. What’s particularly devastating is a pediatric code blue. No one likes it when anyone dies. The family will be tenderly and courteously informed by the doctor. Pastoral care will remain and even ideally get ahold of a patient’s OWN clergy so that they can come to the hospital and provide more personal counseling.
The family will be gently led back to the code room and nurses will be present while the primary family member (usually spouse) comes to terms with the finality of the moment.
The paramedics, sometimes, have not left the ER by the time a time of death has been pronounced. They sometimes take it pretty hard...feeling like they were the frontline ... and maybe they failed. (Even though they’ve done everything they could and by the book ... the book that is the same for everyone.)
If a patient is stabilized he/she may go to the cath lab or even to open heart surgery very quickly. The hospital doesn’t say, “Show me your Gold Mastercard before we’ll give you your life-saving surgery.”
Ideally...then the patient goes to intensive care where they continue to heal.
Regardless of your ability to pay ... you are treated. The hospital will accept you making payments on your treatment even if they are 20 bucks a week.
So -
Would they do the same for a non-celebrity?
Yes. The answer is YES. Period.