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Doc talks about his “Holy S***” moment — horrible lung failure even in young patients

For most people Coronavirus is like the flu or even a cold, but for 20% it’s something awful. Even in younger patients — a few seemingly fit and healthy 40 and 50 year olds are gasping for air as their lungs fill with blood and fluid and it’s “like a near death drowning” or “inhaling caustic gas”. Forgive the language in the headline — those were this docs exact words. He’s working at a New Orleans hospital and his whole attitude to the virus has changed dramatically.

h/t Analitik

A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 — Even in His Young Patients

by Lixzzie Presser, ProPublica

“It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube and out of his mouth. The ventilator should have been doing the work of breathing but he was still gasping for air, moving his mouth, moving his body, struggling. We had to restrain him. With all the coronavirus patients, we’ve had to restrain them. They really hyperventilate, really struggle to breathe. When you’re in that mindstate of struggling to breathe and delirious with fever, you don’t know when someone is trying to help you, so you’ll try to rip the breathing tube out because you feel it is choking you, but you are drowning.

If you don’t feel motivated to stay home and order online, then go read all of this story at ProPublica from end to end. Most likely, if you catch Coronavirus, this won’t happen to you. But the whole pain of quarantine might look like a small price to pay. How many people in each cohort does this dire situation occur too? Perhaps it’s only 1 in a 1000. Or perhaps it’s more. Can someone find the latest stats from Italy on how many need ICU in different cohorts. Presumably, if the mortality rate is 40% with ARDS, then this happens to 2.5 times whatever the mortality rate is.

UPDATE: In comments Lee Valentine points out the doc’s in New Orleans should not have restrained the patient. They should have been paralyzed and unconscious (as the other ICU specialist described in this video).

I was disappointed to read this report of the corona virus ARDS cases. Disappointed because the cases were mismanaged. ARDS victims should NOT be restrained, EVER. They MUST be paralyzed with drugs.

So far, I have had only one corona ARDS patient. He arrived four days ago. There are two now in my hospital. It’s a serious worry that if Los Angeles gets many more we’ll not have enough specialists who know how to manage them. If our current rate of new cases continues, we’ll have all ventilators available in use for corona ARDS in a few weeks.” — Lee Valentine

This is knocking out what should be perfectly fit, healthy people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…then all of a sudden, they go into complete respiratory arrest, shut down and can’t breathe at all.”

“It’s called acute respiratory distress syndrome, ARDS. That means the lungs are filled with fluid. And it’s notable for the way the X-ray looks: The entire lung is basically whited out from fluid. Patients with ARDS are extremely difficult to oxygenate. It has a really high mortality rate, about 40%.

“In my experience, this severity of ARDS is usually more typical of someone who has a near drowning experience — they have a bunch of dirty water in their lungs — or people who inhale caustic gas. Especially for it to have such an acute onset like that. I’ve never seen a microorganism or an infectious process cause such acute damage to the lungs so rapidly. That was what really shocked me.”

“Once I saw these patients with it, I was like, Holy shit, I do not want to catch this and I don’t want anyone I know to catch this.”

There is also lung damage so bad that survivors may suffer long term scarring and loss of capacity. In his hospital they are already rationing masks, working 12 hour shifts, and it has barely begun.

China didn’t tell the world.

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Coronavirus Background: ☀ The Demographics: the severity increases with age, and slightly more for men than women. ☀ The Ro is 2 – 3 and exponential curves are steep. How Coronavirus kills: why the number of ICU units matters so much. ☀ Illness progression: Dry coughs and Fevers, Aches. In 15% of people, by day 5 breathing trouble starts. In 3% (?) by day 8 they may need an ICU (intensive care unit). ☀ The good case of Singapore but the ominous calculations of how fast the ICU beds may run out. ☀ Proof that viruses don’t have wings and we should have stopped all flights so much earlier. ☀ The story of how American Samoa avoided Flu Deaths with quarantine in 1918. ☀ The story of Vo, the Italian town that stopped the virus. ☀ Delay = Death, statistics show mortality rates rise tenfold if hospitals are overwhelmed. ☀ Projections of all US States death tolls depending on quarantine levels and the date that hospitals could be overwhelmed ☀ One doctor describes his “Holy S***” moment ☀ ☀ ☀

We must Crush the Curve to save lives and the economy.

Economics: ☀ The huge impact on the Chinese economy ☀ the awful case of Iran.☀

Beware UN advice:Ethiopian WHO chief was part of China’s debt trap diplomacy ☀

Stats and Data: John Hopkins Live Map Worldometer Coronavirus data in Australia

 

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