Professor Giacomo Grasselli has the task of coordinating the network of intensive care units in Lombardy in Italy. The Prof does not mince his words. He says Covid-19 was like a bomb exploding over the northern Italian province bordering on Switzerland. This is a hard fact and the analogy brings it forcefully home.
Covid-19 Was Like a Bomb Because Things Happened Fast
Things happened very quickly, Professor Giacomo Grasselli explains. We created 500 new intensive care unit beds within two weeks. If you had told me that last month I would have said OK you’re crazy. The task is deadly serious on the ground.
Doctors have to decide which of their patients should receive treatment at thinly-spread intensive care units. The Prof explained the criteria to Eliza Borello on ABC Network. The decision points include biological as opposed to calendar age, a second, simultaneous disease, current medical situation, and overall health status.
Tales of Italian Covid-19 Patients with Transcript Available
You can click on the three dots to the right of save, and open a transcript if you can’t spare 37 minutes right now. The Covid Virus was like a bomb sending problems like shrapnel in several directions. There is a shortage of ICU beds in Lombardy. Ventilators are also in scarce supply, but are essential when patients are unable to breathe in oxygen themselves.
The most important thing people can do is take measures to prevent themselves becoming ill, says Professor Giacomo Grasselli. That’s because we can no longer rely on having access to intensive care. Moral philosopher and acting dean of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame says we face the hardest of decisions.
Do we apply the principle of medical utility to respirators as we do with organ transplants he asks? Is it right and ethical for doctors to restrict access to critical equipment to the young and healthy only?
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Preview Image: Medical Ventilator Control Panel
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