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Flu Nightmare: In Severe Pandemic, Officials Ponder Disconnecting Ventilators From Some Patients
Pro Publica ^ | September 23, 2009 | Sheri Fink

Posted on 09/23/2009 7:06:56 PM PDT by Dementio

With scant public input, state and federal officials are pushing ahead with plans that -- during a severe flu outbreak -- would deny use of scarce ventilators by some patients to assure they would be available for patients judged to benefit the most from them.

The plans have been drawn up to give doctors specific guidelines for extreme circumstances, and they include procedures under which patients who weren’t improving would be removed from life support with or without permission of their families.

The plans are designed to go into effect if the U.S. were struck by a severe flu pandemic comparable to the 1918 outbreak that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. State and federal health officials have concluded that such a pandemic would sicken far more people needing ventilators than could be treated by the available supplies.

(Excerpt) Read more at propublica.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: flu; news; outbreak; pandemic; publichealth
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Comment #81 Removed by Moderator

To: elkfersupper

Thank You Dr. Strangelove


82 posted on 09/25/2009 1:16:51 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: goat granny

I remember having to wait in line with a lot of people to get the sugar cube thing.

There was a guy on Michael Medved’s show awhile back and he wrote a book about polio. It sounded fascinating. He said that polio was a rich man’s disease and that no poor people ever got polio. In fact, he said that even in the U.S., the people living in squalor, in tenement, or in the very poor parts of town simply did not get polio.

He explained why but I forgot that (duh - the most important part) but I think it had something to do with hygiene and the cleaner the people, the more likely they were to get it.

Interesting, huh?


83 posted on 09/25/2009 5:04:28 PM PDT by Paved Paradise
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To: Dementio

So what would you suggest? We have X number of ventilators.
In a real nasty pandemic we might have 5X patients needing ventilators. Triage is a reality in any mass casualty situation.


84 posted on 09/25/2009 5:06:57 PM PDT by Kozak (USA 7/4/1776 to 1/20/2009 Reqiescat in Pace)
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To: Paved Paradise
I don't know about rich vs poor with polio, could be the poor just died because Obama hadn't given them health care yet.... (just kidding)

Back in those days, people didn't ask for help even when it was badly needed..Even the poor were too proud to take welfare even if they could get it...I was born near the end of the depression. You helped your neighbor if you could..My father worked for the city of Detroit (mounted policman) and the city printed their own money called "script" and my mother had to find a store that would actually take it...the store then turned it in to the city for legal money....The world was a lot different in those days....

We had an Ice Box not a refrigerator. The ice man, using a horse drawn cart came down the street twice a week to sell ice...Even the milkman had a horse drawn cart. The milk was left on your door step according to the sign you put out in front of your house...same with the ice man...

At that time, Detroit was one of the largest city's in the country...(it was in the top 8 in terms of population)

85 posted on 09/25/2009 5:28:54 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: Talisker

If you know, say it, liberal weenie. Obama is in charge and has been long enough that preps for this pandemic would involve a government under his direction. If he didn’t cut it on a crisis widely anticipated, why would anyone suppose he will cut it on unexpected crises? I don’t make money off of politics. I think you do. Reveal yourself?


86 posted on 09/25/2009 6:04:04 PM PDT by mathurine
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To: mathurine
If you know, say it, liberal weenie. Obama is in charge and has been long enough that preps for this pandemic would involve a government under his direction. If he didn’t cut it on a crisis widely anticipated, why would anyone suppose he will cut it on unexpected crises? I don’t make money off of politics. I think you do. Reveal yourself?

You need to put down the bong, parse your stream-of-consciousness, and give some references to whatever it is you're trying to say. In the mean time:


87 posted on 09/25/2009 6:18:52 PM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)
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To: pterional
Unless it is life or death stay away from hospitals. They have the largest concentration of germs of any building...Only if absolutely necessary...Hospitals are also a great place to pick up a multitude of bugs that you didn't come in with...Thats why you rarely see doctors or nurses as patients in hospitals...

Surgery is one exception, but cleanliness is absolutely necessary, going in and coming out...The best preventative health care is simple hand washing...

88 posted on 09/25/2009 6:21:28 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: Global2010
The fear mongering that 0 is going to start thinning the herd is not cool.
No one is forcing you to take a lethal injection as St. Kolbe did in Auswitch.

You've got a lot of nerve - it's the likes of you who are fear-mongering to build up this NOTHING of a threat into something terrifying for millions of people.

A law has been passed that indemnifies the vaccine makers from any suit if they kill people with their untested H1N1 vaccine. Still want to push "prevention"?

The government taxing oversight agency has confirmed people will be jailed if they don't pay the healthcare tax. Still think people won't be forced to be vaccinated?

Play with your own life, leave other alone to protect theirs.

89 posted on 09/25/2009 6:24:11 PM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)
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To: DannyTN

It is our duty to humanity to repopulate the planet.


90 posted on 09/25/2009 7:40:24 PM PDT by elkfersupper (Member of the Original Defiant Class)
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To: Talisker

You are a Donkeys Ass.


91 posted on 09/25/2009 8:47:47 PM PDT by Global2010 (Strange We Can Believe In)
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To: Talisker

Wash your hands (to the Pledge of Allegiance)
Stop drinking the Java and call your family practictioner in the morning.

I am sure Art Bell is waiting for your call.


92 posted on 09/25/2009 8:55:04 PM PDT by Global2010 (Strange We Can Believe In)
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Comment #93 Removed by Moderator

To: pterional

LOL Thats how they got all those tele marketing accounts...


94 posted on 09/25/2009 9:00:24 PM PDT by Global2010 (Strange We Can Believe In)
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To: kittykat77
I wonder what criteria were used during polio epidemics when they rationed those old "iron lung" machines.

When I was a kid the Fire Department medics got together with the local High School shop class and built one for our little village. It was not built in a round tube but rather a squarish plywood box. It had all the other features of the "store bought" machine with somewhat more room in the pressure chamber. It worked just fine but we never had call to use it. I'll always remember it as a demonstration of American ingenuity.

Regards,
GtG

95 posted on 09/25/2009 9:10:24 PM PDT by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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To: goat granny

No - it wasn’t rich vs. poor, it was CLEAN vs. DIRTY and the poor did not practice the same levels of hygiene, nor could they.

It is well documented in many books. There is no doubt about it.

As for your interesting background stories, I still have great memories of my parents talking about the iceman coming and my dad said what a great treat it was in the summer since he’d chip off slivers for them. Cleveland (I’m in a burb), too, was like Detroit. Alive and vibrant - a manufacturing hub. No longer. The liberals have KILLED so much in this country.


96 posted on 09/26/2009 11:52:09 AM PDT by Paved Paradise
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To: Paved Paradise
The liberals have KILLED so much in this country.*****

Your sure right on that score, and most of those cities are now run by corrupt democrats.......Forced busing of children from kinder garden up to 12th grade started the downhill ride...middle class blacks and whites moved out to the burbs. Leaving only those on welfare, (both black and white) and they had no tax base anymore....then the riots and business's moved out......some people never can learn from history.......socialism never works.....

97 posted on 09/26/2009 2:55:10 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: Global2010
You are a Donkeys Ass.

And as far as I can tell from your schoolyard mouth, you are a juvenile delinquent. Get off the street and go back to school and learn to argue intelligently.

Wash your hands (to the Pledge of Allegiance)

On second thought, don't bother with school. It's pointless.

98 posted on 09/26/2009 6:54:44 PM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)
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To: Talisker

Actually, you need to put down the bong, bottle or whatever. Go to your health department and ask for a swine flu shot. First of all, you will be told it is not there yet. Next you will be told that only young people and health care providers can have it anyway. Go to your general practicioner and you will be blown off the same way. I don’t have to prove anything to you. The fact that the Obama administration has screwed up its first real crisis will be soon enough apparent. I hope none of your nearest and dearest are wasted because of the incompetence of the administration Obama has appointed; but I hope, even more, that none of mine are, because I didn’t vote for that peculiar and broadly incompetent fellow now in charge.


99 posted on 09/27/2009 8:07:27 PM PDT by mathurine
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To: Talisker

Weenie, can you get a an H1N1 flu shot? Maybe. Can your parents or your grandparents get one. Probably not, though maybe. Can anyone in this country get an H1N1 shot on demand in the immediate future. Absolutely not. Go to your doctor or county health department and see what the protocols are for who can get (buy) a flu shot. As far as I’m concerned, this was Barack Hussein Obamas first opportunity to show that things had changed and that big government could be good. Instead, we get a disaster, even as the One tries to get the government even further into the health care business. Put your cute little artistries on in reply, or better, go to confession somehow and repent your liberal tendencies.


100 posted on 09/29/2009 7:57:11 PM PDT by mathurine
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