Posted on 03/17/2020 3:24:50 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
MILAN - The fight against death pauses every day at 1 p.m.
At that time, doctors in the intensive care unit of Policlinico San Donato phone relatives of the unit’s 25 critically-ill coronavirus patients, all of whom are sedated and have tubes down their throats to breathe, to update the families. Lunchtime used to be for visiting hours at this Milan hospital. But now, as the country grapples with a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people, no visitors are allowed in. And no one in Italy leaves their homes anymore.
When the doctors make the calls, they try not to give false hope: They know that one out of two patients in intensive care with the disease caused by the virus is likely to die.
As the COVID-19 epidemic expands and the disease progresses, these beds are in increasing demand, especially because of the breathing problems the illness can bring. Every time a bed comes free, two anaesthesiologists consult with a specialist in resuscitation and an internal medicine physician to decide who will occupy it.
Age and pre-existing medical conditions are important factors. So is having a family.
“We have to take into account whether older patients have families who can take care of them once they leave the ICU, because they will need help,” says Marco Resta, deputy head of Policlinico San Donato’s Intensive Care Unit.
The most devastating medical crisis in Italy since World War Two is forcing doctors, patients and their families to make decisions that Resta, a former military doctor, said he has not experienced even in war. As of Monday, 2,158 people had died and 27,980 been infected by coronavirus in Italy – the second highest number of reported cases and deaths in the world behind China.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I don’t envy the doctors who have to make decisions like this:
Alfredo Visioli was one such patient. When he was diagnosed, the 83-year old from Cremona was living a busy, active life, at home with a German shepherd, Holaf, that the family had given him. He cared for his 79-year-old wife, Ileana Scarpanti, who had suffered a stroke two years ago, said his granddaughter Marta Manfredi.
At first, he only had intermittent fever, but two weeks after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, he developed pulmonary fibrosis - a disease resulting from lung tissue becoming damaged and scarred, which makes it harder and harder to breathe.
Doctors in the hospital at Cremona, a town of about 73,000 in the Lombardy region, had to decide whether to intubate him to help him breathe.
“They said there was no point,” said Manfredi. ]
The death toll from Europe’s 2003 heatwave should have been a warning.
Sure as Hell ain't, "jus da flu".
There is no compassion in socialism and fascism; to arrive at these, God is first kicked out of your vehicle.
The press refused to analyze the 2003 heatwave, but if you went from raw data at the time...the bulk of French and Italian deaths were people over the age of 65. The older Germans? It was like one German for every ten French dead. The Germans who were dehydrated, went to bottled water....the French went to wine (I think the same for the Italians).
Europe’s seniors are expendable, unless they’re members of the ruling class.
The UK calling them “bed blockers” should tell anyone everything they need to know.
EU politicians hope this eliminates many of those on social program, freeing up money for more migrants who will become tax paying workers.
You are assuming that he did not have decades of occupational exposure to asbestos or silica.
[You are assuming that he did not have decades of occupational exposure to asbestos or silica. ]
"It's just a flu, Bro!"©Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
The false positive rate was 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
If a quarantine saves just one child's or one old fart’s life, it's worth it.
What I am saying is that he may have already had a pre-existing lung disease and the COVID-19 pushed him over the edge.
[What I am saying is that he may have already had a pre-existing lung disease and the COVID-19 pushed him over the edge.]
Single payor healthcare proving how bad it is.
I can't speak for the conditions in France but I can speak for the conditions for Italians, if they drank their own water it would probably kill them, or make them sick.
Hospital in Italy, (video from Jack Posobiec of OANN) https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1239741543654834179
Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore is preparing for a surge in patients with COVID-19 by postponing “non-essential” surgeries for two weeks. The NHS just did a similar move in the UK.
This thing isn’t just going to pound state run health systems.
Re your article link:
The article abstract provides a clear explanation of why malaria medicine chloroquine has been found to be helpful. It interferes with virus proteins that bind to the porphyrin components of hemoglobin. And attacking red blood cells is what the malaria parasite does.
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