U.S. COVID-19 News: Sad State Of Affairs As Hospitals In America Now Have To Choose Who Lives And Dies Due To Exponential Number Of COVID-19 Cases
Source: U.S. COVID-19 News Jul 27, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 4 hours, 33 minutes ago
U.S. COVID-19 News: The exponential rise in COVID-19 cases are forcing more and more hospitals in affected states to start setting up “death panels” to decide who lives and who dies as there is a growing shortage of resources, ICUs, ventilators and other medical resources in many hospitals.
Certain counties are resembling third world countries and trump supporters and Republicans should be so proud that their President has managed the COVID-91 crisis so well such that there is now 4.23 million Americans who have been infected with the COVID-19 disease (THE US CDC says that the real figures could be ten fold) and so far more than 148,000 Americans have died.
The situation is expected to get worse and not better for America with projections that infected rates and deaths are to start growing until around November, when the situation is expected to become catastrophic with the arrival of the cool season and the actual second wave.
A massive surge in coronavirus cases in rural Texas has forced one hospital to set up “death panels” to decide which patients it can save and which ones will be sent home to die.
It was reported that doctors at Starr County Memorial Hospital, the only hospital in Starr County, have been issued with critical care guidelines to decide which COVID-19 patients it will treat and which ones will be sent home because they are likely to die. The committee is being formed to alleviate the hospital’s limited medical resources so doctors can focus on patients with higher survival rates.
Such measures are also appearing in various hospitals in not only Texas but also in California, Arizona and Florida.
The badly hit Starr county began experiencing increases in coronavirus cases in early July, with 1,769 confirmed cases reported as of 24July, 17 confirmed fatalities and 33 fatalities pending confirmation from the state. The county had gone several weeks in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic without reporting any cases. Starr county, along the US-Mexico border, has a population of around 64,000 people.
County officials blamed social gatherings for the surge in cases.
Starr county Judge Elroy Vera told media, “We are seeing the results of socialization during the 4th of July, vacations, and other social opportunities. Unfortunately, Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment, and who is sent home to die by their loved ones.”
The Texas county issued a shelter in place order on 24 July, and enacted curfews and mandatory face coverings. The first hurricane of 2020 to make landfall in the US, category one Hurricane Hanna, travelled through Starr county over the weekend, forcing some drive-through testing centers to temporarily close down.
Corando Rios, a nurse at Starr County Memorial Hospital’s Covid-19 unit said, “I have been a nurse for almost 30 years and I had never seen a time like this in our community.” He tested positive for coronavirus a few days ago and is recovering at home in quarantine.
Rios added,
“We are not ICU (intensive care unit) capable, but we are doing ICU work. We now have a state emergency response team of nurses, medics, respiratory therapists, and nurse assistants, and last week two doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists came from the US Navy. We are doing the best we can with the resources available.”
The new guidelines have been referred to as “death panels” by critics of the Trump administration. The phrase was first popularized by Republican critics of Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms when they falsely claimed “death panels” would be used to decide who received critical treatment.
The Texas Starr county is not the first place to be forced to draw up guidelines for which Covid 19 patients it will treat. Critical care standards were first enacted in the US in Arizona on 3 July in response to requests from health service providers around the state. In early July, Arizona became a global coronavirus hot spot, though rates of positive cases have decreased since then.
Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association said, “At present hospitals transfer coronavirus patients to different facilities to avoid capacity issues. The standards have been activated by the state but I don’t think hospitals are using them right now. That may change this fall as demand for non-COVID hospitalization begins to increase.”
Numerous health care professionals are suggesting online that may be it would make better sense if Trump supporters or Republicans and their families were simply put last on the list for priority for medical treatments!
As it is becoming apparent that more and more Americans will soon have to fend for themselves to get their own treatments for COVID-19, Thailand Medical News is soon introducing a new service of approved drugs, supplements and herbs and diagnostic kits that Americans can order online along with guidelines as to how to use them along with a new cross border telehealth online facility where they can be getting support from doctors from other countries. We have fulfillment centers being set up in California, Arizona, Texas, New York and Boston. Look out for our announcements on our site.
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