Boris in intensive care?

[youngestisapsycho]

So has been tweeted by Laura Kuenssberg?

Its not unusual for covid-19 patients to be in ICU and be on oxygen. The point is about being intensively monitored as you can deteroriate really quickly. This means either increasing your oxygen levels or it means you can be ventilated more quickly should you need it.

The FT was reporting earlier that both UK and Chinese doctors have observed that you don't want to put someone on a ventilator too early / unless you absoluetely have to, because it can reduce your chances of survival / long term health outcomes (its much harder to recover long term from being ventilated).

In terms of ECMO if you are that sick they decide to put you on it, then you are already seriously fucked and likely to have long term health problems. Its a real last resort, and your chances of survival are not great. Its not something you go for earlier on to maximise chances of survival.

@iCorona

It's sorta like a dialysis machine in that it has blood pumped through it but it adds oxygen and removed carbon dioxide. Like an external lung.

Appuskidu, ICU’s offer non invasive respiratory support such as CPAP, BiPAP and Vapotherm (which is a high flow air/oxygen system. Not all patients need to be ventilated.

Suspect he's on cpap, with an art line and constant spo2, ecg monitoring. I would think it's all precautionary at the moment, can't really see the medics wanting to do a crash intubation on a Pm on the ward or hdu.

I obviously don't know what is happening, but people moved into intensive care can be conscious, but then sedated to be put on a ventilator. So the fact he was conscious before being moved means nothing.

Zilla1 and you'll note that St Thomas' has (at least) one.

I'm told it's (very much) a 'last resort', so if he needs additional help they'll go for intubation/ventilation/proning first.

Poor man...I really hope he pulls through.
His family and children must be so worried

Poor Boris.

This thing moves so quickly, any look at the lungs thread will show people feel better then worse.
Then better.

I was ill the other day and improved then was suddenly too ill to do anything!

The Covid itu I work in you only go if you need ventilated as they physically do not have the beds spare for self ventilating patients. The criteria for admittance is different to that of normal itu. Having said that he is the prime minister so likely they won’t be taking any chances at all and it’s the safest place he could possibly be with constant monitoring and anaesthetists on hand. Hope so anyway.

Under the impression (on our unit anyway) that high flow isn't being used due to the risk of aerosol spray of the virus - imagine how far flows of 50-60 odd litres of gas/min will catapult the virus if it becomes disconnected...we were told this about cpap but we're using that now..
I'm

I suspect they think he is at risk of dying, because otherwise I don't think they would tell us he had been moved to intensive care. But if there is a risk he could die, they have to let the public know that is a possibility so it is not quite such a shock if he does.
Yes he may pull through and be fine, but I suspect he is very ill at the monent.

Goodjob, a last resort but better than the alternative if you want to stay in the game. I can see you know there's relatively few across the UK. Profitable business too, I've seen.

I hope he pulls through this. His poor partner too.

Grim news... Hoping for the best for him... And for his family & Carrie - terrible terrible times

He will get the best care you can get.

A friend is a respiratory consultant at St Thomas' their stats are a 27% mortality rate after admission to ICU, nationally it's 50% at the moment for a Covid 19 admission

He is lucky there was an ICU bed and Intensive care nurse available to care for him.

And a ventilator for that matter.

I pray he gets through this. I felt a wave of sadness when I seen him clapping on the tv the other night, he looked really Ill. His poor family must be so worried.

"Data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) showed that of 165 patients treated in critical care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the end of February, 79 died, while 86 survived and were discharged. The figures were taken from an audit of 775 people who have been or are in critical care with the disease, across 285 intensive care units. The remaining 610 patients continue to receive intensive care." (Guardian reporting.)

So it's not entirely true to say it's 50/50 survival because recovery takes weeks and the vast majority of Covid patients are still actually alive and in ITU.

You could find that many of the most seriously ill died quite quickly, leading to your death statistic, whilst the majority are still recovering and we don't know what their outcome will be.

I really do wish the PM well. Sincerely.

I think when this is over he and his team will want to reconsider that this Govt. deemed some of the qualified nursing care he is receiving to be “unskilled”. An ICU nurse salary commences at less than £30k.

I hope he gets well soon and my heart goes out to his family.

The thing is medical treatment is meant to be confidential, so I don't think we have a 'right' to hear the ins and outs of his condition.

Get well Boris.

I'm not a fan but I really hope he gets better

Dominic Raab looked like he had been crying. Which doesn't bode well and fit the narrative that it's a 'precaution'