Posted on 03/26/2020 3:33:42 AM PDT by EBH
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has been discussing a universal do-not-resuscitate policy for infected patients, regardless of the wishes of the patient or their family members - a wrenching decision to prioritize the lives of the many over the one.
Richard Wunderink, one of Northwestern's intensive-care medical directors, said hospital administrators have asked Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for help in clarifying state law and whether it permits the policy shift.
"It's a major concern for everyone," he said. "This is something about which we have had lots of communication with families, and I think they are very aware of the grave circumstances."
Officials at George Washington University Hospital in Washington say they have had similar conversations, but for now will continue to resuscitate covid-19 patients using modified procedures, such as putting plastic sheeting over the patient to create a barrier. The University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, one of the country's major hot spots for infections, is dealing with the problem by severely limiting the number of responders to a contagious patient in cardiac or respiratory arrest.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
As a 75 YO senior, starting to get nervous.
Illinois had only 19 CV deaths as of yesterday.
Less than 2,000 total cases.
Probably 10% of which are serious.
https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/coronavirus/Pages/default.aspx
Death toll in the US is something like 1000 so far.
They seem to be jumping to DNR rather quickly. Just how overwhelmed are these hospitals?
Prioritizing the many over the one. This isn’t Star trek and that’s not what America does.
Communism does that and it’s worked out great /s
No idea at this point, just worrisome they are already thinking about this.
Doesn’t matter. If it sounds communist in nature then it’s time to do it, according to them
I remember being warned that this would happen within 20 years long ago (about 25 years ago) by all the pro-life advocates who said that the devaluing of human life over time would make a generation numb to the aged. Now we are there. Culture of death. We were told that if we didnt fix our debt the same thing would happen when the boomers reached retirement. It is scary. And yet, look at the dem candidate - all past 75.
L8r
I beat the State to it; I have a DNR attached to my will. So take that!
So those who didnt believe the reports coming out of Taiwan and the Chinese who witnesssed things are totally plausible even t the west. That is, body bags were being zipped up while the patients were still breathing and tossed into piles for the crematorium. Not so hard to believe now is it?
How about no?
Obama care
I’m already DNR on all my medical records. My father spent the last few years of his life as a vegetable and it’s the most horrible thing that can happen to anyone.
How convenent.
No elective surgeries. The US Government has announced that it will eventually pick up the medical costs of the virus(and then some). In weeks to come, entire hospitals and staff will be flooded with virus patients. And now DNR... Has anyone heard how the Health Insurance companies are suffering under fewer and fewer non virus claims being made every day? If you watch the news, it’s almost like they don’t exist anymore.
Estate planning. State and County employees are standing by to help, as soon as your gone.
Whatever happened to...”Do no harm.”?
To date in 2020 Chicago has produced 85 shot to death and 402 shot and wounded.
They need to do what South Korea did - added temporary negative pressure ICU units (some in the parking lots of hospitals) to provide the needed ICU bed space.
I don’t think there is a real respirator shortage as much as a shortage in some places while others places have no shortage and may not even be using all of theirs. And yes, Cpap machines - hooked into the hospital’s oxygen lines, are being used in some places where there is a shortage of respirators (I know it as a fact in one NY hospital).
Trump should assign the Army Corps of Engineers to shift gears as much as needed to help with that - temporary negative pressure ICU units - as well as assigning military medical personnel from U.S. domestic bases to TDY with private and public U.S. hospitals, as well as where possible adding U.S. domestic military hospitals to help fill gaps in places where such facilities exist and there are few private and public hospitals.
All of those things can be devised and should be a priority above making death lists.
If we were not killing the economy, state budgets could afford to add resources for their hospitals.
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