Worst Case: Choosing Who Survives in a Flu Epidemic (Obamacare primer)

NY Slimes ^ | 10/25/2009 | Sheri Fink MD

[markomalley]

New York state health officials recently laid out this wrenching scenario for a small group of medical professionals from New York-Presbyterian Hospital:

A 32-year-old man with cystic fibrosis is rushed to the hospital with appendicitis in the midst of a worsening pandemic caused by the H1N1 flu virus, which has mutated into a more deadly form. The man is awaiting a lung transplant and brought with him the mechanical ventilator that helps him breathe.

New York’s governor has declared a state of emergency and hospitals are following the state’s pandemic ventilator allocation plan — actual guidelines drafted in 2007 that are now being revisited. The plan aims to direct ventilators to those with the best chances of survival in a severe, 1918-like flu pandemic where tens of thousands develop life-threatening pneumonia.

Because the man’s end-stage lung disease caused by his cystic fibrosis is among a list of medical conditions associated with high mortality, the guidelines would bar the man from using a ventilator in a hospital, even though he is, unlike many with his illness, stable, in good condition, and not close to death. If the hospital admits him, the guidelines call for the machine that keeps him alive to be given to someone else.

[MamaDearest]

****Of course, all politicians will ensure that they survive leaving their slave populace to fend for themselves.****

According to the Drudge Report, our leader’s daughters have NOT received the immunizations he wants all of us to get.

[Brugmansian]

Sheri Fink MD writes:
"A 32-year-old man with cystic fibrosis is rushed to the hospital with appendicitis in the midst of a worsening pandemic caused by the H1N1 flu virus, which has mutated into a more deadly form. The man is awaiting a lung transplant and brought with him the mechanical ventilator that helps him breathe."

Sheri Fink knows a shortage of mechanical ventilators isn't the main problem. This hypothetical guy and those who end up in the ICU as a result of H1N1 need ECMO machines. Their lungs are so wrecked and/or filled with snot that putting them on ventilation explodes their chests.