When we began this series about COVID-19, we committed ourselves to sharing the truth. That was because many people we met did not seem to understand how serious the epidemic could become. CNN Health examined the possibility of the worst COVID nightmare, rationing resources approaching. We are sad to have to tell you this could happen in America.
Future View of the Worst COVID Nightmare, Rationing Resources
The number of COVID patients in some U.S. hospitals is the highest ever in U.S. public health history. We may be reaching the point where administrators have to ration nurses, respirators and care. ‘When you run out of capacity, then physicians and bio-ethicists in those hospitals will need to decide which patients are salvageable.
‘Which of them are potentially salvageable and which patients are not’ according to CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. The proportion of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospital ICU increased from 16% in September, to 40% last week. Now CNN Health cites experts warning holiday travel could mean ‘a surge on top of a surge.’
A Surge on Top of a Surge Could Trigger ‘The Worst Nightmare’
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles CEO, Dr. Elaine Batchlor warned starkly on Monday. ‘If we continue to see an increase in the number of COVID patients, we may be forced to do something. Something that, as health professionals, we all really just loathe having to even think about.’
Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California has nurses caring for three or four patients, when the norm is two. ‘We have a limited number of ventilators, we have a limited number of ICU beds,’ their spokesperson explains.
‘If you don’t have respirators, you don’t have nurses to care for patients, you don’t have ICU beds you will have to have those terrible discussions. Discussions with families, which is why people need to stay home. And when they go out, they need to wear a mask’ to avoid our worst COVID nightmare, rationing resources.
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