Posted on 03/23/2020 9:02:52 PM PDT by usafa92
The doctor’s voice was filled with distress.
Dr. Suraj Saggar didn’t have much time to talk. At times, he even sounded almost out of breath. Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck is under siege from the coronavirus, and he needed to get back to his patients.
But first, he had a desperate message he needed to send.
They need help.
“It looks likes a war zone,” said Saggar, Holy Name’s chief of infectious disease.
The hospital is in such dire need, it took the unprecedented step of pleading to the public for donations to buy critical supplies.
Holy Name is filling with COVID-19 patients. Supplies are running low. Doctors and nurses — already at risk of exposure — could be put in further danger if they run out of protective equipment, while some already have gotten sick, medical workers said.
The Bergen County hospital — located at the epicenter of New Jersey’s coronavirus outbreak — is on the brink, nearing its capacity and supply stock. And it’s not alone in this deepening crisis as hospitals throughout the state face diminishing supplies and equipment.
Holy Name is running out of ventilators. The facility is down to only a four-day supply of respirators. Its stock of protective gloves and eye shields are dwindling. And disposable gowns are already gone.
"Everything is running low,” Saggar said, speaking rapidly as a clamor of background noise carried over the phone line — the cacophony of doctors and nurses rushing around him, tending to patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
120 yrs old? You mean a freeper witnessed the black Sox cheat?
Not really. In some hospitals it is a war zone
A holes have wondered into ER and staff has to be quarantined for two weeks
At the present time PPEs are in short supply. That will change but right this minute it’s beyond tough....some hospitals have zero PPEs
This is one hospital in a heavily hot area. The healthcare staff is under siege. They feel it and say so
Careful...you just might be accused of spreading lies.
(I believe you.)
Actually they have been successful in advanced stages
If we were socialized it would operate perfectly like Italy.
It’s not going to undo the organ damage.
Had to take husband to ER in Portland yesterday afternoon. I could see they were ready for the deluge but there wasn’t one. It was more like no one wanted to go near a hospital. They took my temp and then sent me back to his room and he was seen right away, got some tests and discharged. So easy.
If treated early there will not be any organ damage.
“Quinine-based drugs aren’t going to do much at an advanced stage.”
and you know that how?
here’s a list of published medical papers that say otherwise:
a couple of anecdotal cases thrown in for good measure:
https://nypost.com/2020/03/22/florida-man-with-coronavirus-says-drug-touted-by-trump-saved-his-life/
and this from WSJ:
“These Drugs Are Helping Our Coronavirus Patients
Hydroxychloroquine is a common generic drug used to treat lupus, arthritis and malaria. The medication, whose brand name is Plaquenil, is relatively safe, with the main side effect being stomach irritation, though it can cause echocardiogram and vision changes. In 2005, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed that chloroquine, an analogue, could block a virus from penetrating a cell if administered before exposure. If tissue had already been infected, the drug inhibited the virus.
On March 9 a team of researchers in China published results showing hydroxychloroquine was effective against the 2019 coronavirus in a test tube. The authors suggested a five-day, 12-pill treatment for Covid-19: two 200-milligram tablets twice a day on the first day followed by one tablet twice a day for four more days.
A more recent French study used the drug in combination with azithromycin. Most Americans know azithromycin as the brand name Zithromax Z-Pak, prescribed for upper respiratory infections. The Z-Pak alone doesn’t appear to help fight Covid-19, and the findings of combination treatment are preliminary.
But researchers in France treated a small number of patients with both hydroxychloroquine and a Z-Pak, and 100% of them were cured by day six of treatment. Compare that with 57.1% of patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone, and 12.5% of patients who received neither.
What’s more, most patients cleared the virus in three to six days rather than the 20 days observed in China. That reduces the time a patient can spread the virus to others. One lesson that should inform the U.S. approach: Use this treatment cocktail early, and don’t wait until a patient is on a ventilator in the intensive-care unit.
A couple of careful studies of hydroxychloroquine are in progress, but the results may take weeks or longer. Infectious-disease experts are already using hydroxychloroquine clinically with some success. With our colleague Dr. Joe Brewer in Kansas City, Mo., we are using hydroxychloroquine in two ways: to treat patients and as prophylaxis to protect health-care workers from infection.
We had been using the protocol outlined in the research from China, but we’ve switched to the combination prescribed in the French study. Our patients appear to be showing fewer symptoms.
Our experience suggests that hydroxychloroquine, with or without a Z-Pak, should be a first-line treatment. Unfortunately, there is already a shortage of hydroxychloroquine. The federal government should immediately contract with generic manufacturers to ramp up production. Any stockpiles should be released.
As a matter of clinical practice, hydroxychloroquine should be given early to patients who test positive, and perhaps if Covid-19 is presumed—in the case of ill household contacts, for instance. It may be especially useful to treat mild cases and young patients, which would significantly decrease viral transmission and, as they say, “flatten the curve.”
Emergency rooms run the risk of one patient exposing a dozen nurses and doctors. Instead of exposed health workers getting placed on 14-day quarantine, they could receive hydroxychloroquine for five days, then test for the virus. That would allow health-care workers to return to work sooner if they test negative.
President Trump touted hydroxychloroquine in his Thursday press conference as a potential treatment, which is a welcome move. And this isn’t only about treatment. Rapid and strategic use of these drugs could help arrest the spread of the disease.
We have decades of experience in treating infectious diseases and dealing with epidemics, and we believe in safety and efficacy. We don’t want to peddle false hope; we have seen promising drugs turn out to be duds.
But the public expects an answer, and we don’t have the luxury of time. We have a drug with an excellent safety profile but limited clinical outcomes—and no better alternatives until long after this disaster peaks. We can use this treatment to help save lives and prevent others from becoming infected. Or we can wait several weeks and risk discovering we didn’t do everything we could to end this pandemic as quickly as possible.
Dr. Colyer is a practicing physician and chairman of the National Advisory Commission on Rural Health. He served as governor of Kansas, 2018-19. Dr. Hinthorn is director of the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Kansas Medical Center.”
and best of all, President Trump believes these drugs are “game changers”, and of course being President, he’s got access to thousands of times of information as you do ...
You guys don’t want me up there. I respect the 2ndA as much as anyone but I would still support an enforced lockdown, martial law if this virus is still running (the #new deaths is not going down) in 10 days. We HAVE to do what it takes to knock this down. We may have muffed last week but this week we have to be very serious. It is an epidemic, the #of new deaths is still increasing. Doubling about every 48 hours. Even Tucker, if I heard him correctly said we will have a day this week with 4,000 deaths. My estimate was 2,000 but it is going to be a very bad week for the doctors and nurses.
Granted, if the CINC decides to start rolling back isolation as a political decision Trump can do that. It would be best if we earned it.
and a few others:
Ok, but the death rate here is now at less than 2% and 86% of people testing positive have few or no symptoms. We are not rerunning the movie Contagion here. Many non-affected hospitals are running out of supplies because they are being bought up. Analyze the numbers.
My comment specifically said “at an advanced stage” lol
Again, quinine-based drugs aren’t going to undo organ damage.
Has nothing whatsoever to do with my comment.
Quinine-based drugs aren’t going to undo organ damage.
I wonder how these people know what a war zone looks like.
What war zones have they lived in?
“Again, quinine-based drugs aren’t going to undo organ damage.”
ROTFLOL!
changed from “advanced stage” to “organ damage”. got it ...
If we lose our doctors and nurses it’s going to become hell - the only way to stop the virus then will be when enough of us die... leaving children alone and unprotected.
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