[AU72]

I read that there on any given day about 330,000 IC beds available in the country.

Three years ago, this month, my BIL came down with the flu and was directed to check-in to a hospital but there were no IC beds available that day in Massachusetts nor RI because of the flu. He was able to check in 12 hours later but it was too late for him and he died another 12 hours later.

I fear a run on the hospitals will cause triage of patients prioritizing who gets the bed.

[DannyTN]

I read that there are somewhere between 62,000 and 110,000 ventilators. And that ECMO machines (blood oxygenator) are rare with only 264 hospitals offering them

[FreedomForce]

I think that’s already what’s happening in northern italy. I was looking at icu capacity for various countries(2012 data). Italy wasn’t listed but Germany had the most icu beds with respect to their population. That may be part of the reason why Germany is doing so well with their death rate. USA was ranked pretty high, too. Some later data i was looking at showed South Korea and Japan to have the most overall hospital beds per population. USA didn’t rate too well for overall beds.

[Capt. Tom]

Three years ago, this month, my BIL came down with the flu and was directed to check-in to a hospital but there were no IC beds available that day in Massachusetts nor RI because of the flu. He was able to check in 12 hours later but it was too late for him and he died another 12 hours later.

I mentioned on FR a few years ago when I had my second of 3 strokes I was taken by ambulance in the winter to the ER in the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth Mass.,and people were in beds in the corridors because it was over burdened with patients.

It won't take much to crash our hospital system with flu patients because of a lack of beds and some the health care providers Doctors included, will get the flu and have to stay home. -Tom