Hospitals may only treat patients likely to survive

[Kmx123]

Safe to say my anxiety Is now through the roof

apple.news/Ay4fqP_ODSsSYPGb_13nfpw

Who knew chronically underfunding the NHS would lead to pain suffering and unnecessary deaths? Oh yeah- everyone but people voted tory so here we are.
I'm angry and very scared for my dad who's in his 70s and has COPD. I feel for everyone worried about their health or the health of their loved ones.

People need to start acting sensibly and taking responsibility for themselves. Supermarkets in town crowded today with lots of over 70s. Why they couldn’t have bought their shopping in the week when it was quiet?? Also all sitting in cafes. They and their families will no doubt be expecting full ventilation when they get sick...

@Twixes

I was in a coma on a ventilator for some weeks due to acute respiratory failure (pneumonia). As I slowly approached critical (at home and then in hospital) I was very much unaware of what was going on and did not have any distress. Having spoken with many others who went through similar, I know others would agree that we did not experience any distress.

I can only hope that people who have passed away from this - and from similar - experience the same. Medics have told me that pneumonia can be a rapid death for some people and it isn’t always suffering at all.

We will never know how people feel as they’re dying but there are people who have come very, very close and lots of us report a complete lack of understanding and awareness which is a blessing.

This is fairly normal
My mum died last week she had pneumonia and copd although she had been living independently and fit and happy enough to go about her daily life prior to getting ill ,she didnt have much in reserve to see her through her illness
If she had gone into cardiac arrest they wouldn't have revived her because
A. The act of reviving someone is horrendous and would have caused her poor body great damage and pain
B.If succesful if would only prolong the inevitable
A lot of times the treatment can mean the patient really suffers ,hence its only done if there is a chance they will recover.If not why put someone through it
You need to remember this is only going to happen to people who really have no chance of recovery ,most people will recovery very quickly some will recover after everything has been thrown at them

@Schuyler thank you for sharing your experience. It is somewhat reassuring

I hope we've got enough opiates and dissociative, if all else fails.

People are already forced every day to endure horrific and traumatic deaths worse than anything anyone would ever, ever allow for an animal. It's not new, it only seems new if you've previously been shielded from it and believed "keep them comfortable" is anything more than a euphemism for discontinuing active treatment. There is no comfort, only trauma.

Ask for sedation. Don't expect anybody to bloody bother offering it unless your pain and distress has reached the point of being too inconvenient for them to ignore (and they're so disconnected they can ignore a LOT of suffering - even screaming in pain can and will be ignored). Otherwise you will be left to suffer.

My loved one's death was barbaric and traumatic, and that was with supposedly good palliative "care". Ask for sedation, ask for pain relief, and don't stop asking until it's been provided.

and there is the next layer down of lasting side effects too for people who don't get treatment to alleviate the course but do survive. Reports out of China are already suggesting that permanent lung and kidney damage will result for some as they did with SARS-1 and also there are reports of male fertility damage.

Criminal.

If you really want an idea of how bad this could get, I was listening to a conversation amongst some intensive care consultants debating how many people you could safely hook up to a single ventilator (the general consensus was 2-4 depending on their lung compliance), and how few nursing staff you would need to monitor them safely (2:1, or 2:3 ratio).

Sounds like some people are preparing for the worst.

I watched my DD die of respiratory failure 3 years ago and can absolutely confirm that what @Babdoc says is true. My DD had underlying health conditions and had been deemed unsuitable (bg her medical team and us)for ventilation a number of years earlier. Not everyone should be put on ventilation in ICU - it is not in their best interests.

To a PP who “hopes I actually am a retired doc” - yes, I was in anaesthetics and ITU for 36 years as an NHS doc, retired 3 years ago.
I realise I can’t easily prove that on here, but if you scroll my previous posts on a variety of medical subjects you will see that I’m either an unusually well informed and consistent liar, or telling the truth!
Knowing my younger colleagues, I am sure they will work themselves to exhaustion to provide care to as many virus victims as is humanly possible, but they will be limited by the number of ventilators, staff and critical care beds, if we all get sick at once. Hence the UK strategy of trying to drag out the epidemic over as many months as possible, to reduce the caseload arriving in any given week.

Well most people don’t have access to privately funded medical care so this sort of thing is already widespread. Even in cases where people have the money access to organs is restricted unless your willing to risk a blackmarket purchase. I know it sounds scary, and on this scale it is, but it’s already happening and we shouldn’t be blind to that. It’s just what happens when healthcare isn’t adequately funded.

@Babdoc To a PP who “hopes I actually am a retired doc” - yes, I was in anaesthetics and ITU for 36 years as an NHS doc, retired 3 years ago. I realise I can’t easily prove that on here, but if you scroll my previous posts on a variety of medical subjects you will see that I’m either an unusually well informed and consistent liar, or telling the truth!

That was me, and I wasn't in any way calling you a liar - I was absolutely genuine when I said I hope you really were a doctor, because I would find that reassuring (what you said about it not being a terrible way to die).