My BMI is 40 are they less likely to ventilate me?

[FuckADuckie]

If I did get it because I'm on the list of secondary issues?

I just read this somewhere and am terrified now :(

Where is this info coming from?
Depending on age even at the high bmi you won't definately need ventilation. Most people don't even those with health conditions.
Why are we assuming it'll be a choice between patients? If you are self isolating you won't catch it during the peak.
We all have control over this if we practise social distancing.

The harsh reality of it is yes. If it comes to choosing who to ventilate and if it's you vs a personal of similar age, medical history etc but they are slim and you have a BMI of >40...they'll ventilate them before you.

Are they weighing and measuring everyone on arrival at hospital and calculating BMI?

Does anyone have a source at all?
Where is it saying people with secondary issues won't be helped.

I’m self isolating as much as I can but my husband has to keep working so not everyone with an underlying medical issue can fully self isolate.

Are they weighing and measuring everyone on arrival at hospital and calculating BMI?

Yes they do to calculate medication doses.

A BMI of 40 is morbidly obese. There's no arguing with that.

If you are in hospital and there's one bed and the choice is BMI of 40 or BMI 20 and all other factors are the same, the doctors will choose BMI 20. This is a fact.

OPs BMI is clearly high due to the drugs. They can make you pile on weight. This is a fact. OP the onus is on you I'm afraid. No one else can lower your BMI. The drugs make it harder but you can do this!

This

Not to put too fine a point on things, people with a BMI of over 40 are likely to be known to the NHS. And it's usually quite clear that bariatric equipment is needed.

I feel like some people here are loving being able to wag the finger disapprovingly at overweight and obese people because of this!

I agree whiteswongsong yes we might be obese, but what about drunks, druggies, anorexics, smokers all the others drains, why do the obese get so much hatred. Food is an addiction too, and at times like this its either starve or eat whats left which isn't healthy foods not exactly the time for all the hatred. No one is less deserving because they have an addiction

Being obese does have a significant impact on health, but obesity can be treated by life style changes.

I’m also on medication that increases my appetite, I eat my usual amount so it hasn’t caused any weight gain. I’m aware that the only calories my body can use are the ones I put in my mouth, too many and I will gain weight, too few and I will lose weight.

You can slowly solve your obesity, some people, me included have life long chronic illnesses that can be managed, but will always make us high risk to serious illness no matter how well we manage them.

Op- you have an opportunity now to show your children good exercise routines/healthy eating etc whilst out of school. Have you spoken to your mental health team/Dr about alternatives to your current meds which dont put weight on as easily? Have you ever been referred to a dietitian? Sometimes having a good reason for weight loss is a great motivator. I've had success with a keto diet recently.

As another poster said, IF you needed to be tubed, you are very sick indeed! I'd be more concerned about whether a specialist bariatric ambulance was available if you needed one, whether the hospital had a bariatric bed/BP cuff/specialist hoists/equipment etc etc.

I'm sure there would be places offering hypnotherapy and support online at the moment.

Ok so yes you are in a more vulnerable group FuchADuckie. Your weight puts you in this group, it's not a judgement it's just a fact. My BMI was over 40 2 years ago that's why I asked my GP to refer for Bariatric surgery because my weight was detrimental to my health.
Intubation should you need it is much more difficult for the morbidly obese. (Horrible term I know but that is the clinical term for BMI 40+)

However , there ARE things you can do to help yourself and the NHS. The first and most important is self isolating. This message doesn't seem to have got through . Self Isolating means just that. No contact with the outside world.
No 'I'm just going to the supermarket and straight home' ... no 'I'm only seeing family' .. Self isolating means you and whoever needs your care (dcs) have to stay in your own space. And No contact with others.
As with all others in the vulnerable group (I am still in this group because I have a health issue from long before I was fat) you need to be in lockdown. Someone needs to drop your food in the doorstep, your kids and you cannot go anywhere where you/they can put their hands in a surface that an infected person might have put theirs up to 72 hours earlier. Think door handles, bus doors/seats , money , tins/food /trolleys/baskets at a supermarket. You need to stay only with them for (at the moment ) 12 weeks.

When food is dropped off you need to pick it up with gloves and wipe it down.

Yes it's extreme. But it is the only way to keep you safe AND to free up a horribly overwhelmed NHS from having to treat someone like you and me when they have no capacity. It's that brutal. This thing is going to be much much worse. Do everything now to avoid getting it because yes, if the NHS does end up with more people than ventilators , those harder to treat will logically be less likely to survive.

It’s a very slippery slope to go down when we prioritise by number of children

I'll just make sure that as a childless person no one even bothers to call an ambulance then as my life is obviously totally worthless. Fucking hell.

Patchworkpatty
People with secondary issues aren't being asked to self isolate it's that they socially distance.
Op can still go for walks outside just 6 feet apart from anyone.
But the rest is true.
Getting outside is important for physical and mental health and can be done in a low risk way.

Does being pregnant count as something which would give lower chances of survival and therefore would be passed over in favour of a non pregnant person for a bed/ventilator?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon The There are people in their 20s, 30s and 40s with no underlining health conditions fighting for their lives in ICU wards in London. seems to be teacher, so they would definitely know the importance of quoting good sources. I'm sure they will be along shortly,

I'm not that poster, but they're correct.

Here are a couple of examples:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8131269/Fit-healthy-gym-goer-39-struggles-breathe-coronavirus.html
www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-young-people-not-invincible-world-health-organisation-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-a9415651.html
www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184291/coronavirus-covid-19-young-people-sick-vulnerable-affected-severe-cases
www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-young-adults-can-face-severe-cases

I have several friends working in NHS hospitals in London who have told me the same thing.

Please don’t listen to half the absolute tosh on here. Some are truly unkind, Ill informed and judgemental.

A BMI of 40 does not mean you cannot be incubated. It is on the cusp of severe obesity. Plenty of fat people in ITUs. There is no suggestion that medical staff will be exclude on any given criteria at the moment. If a situation arose where two people needed the same ventilator then a carefully considered holistic assessment of best action to save lives would be made. It would not be as crude as ‘you’re fat so don’t deserve a ventilator’.

For example, there are many times when an older person breaks their hip and a decision has to be made about whether to operate. Generally, that comes down to a balancing act and the patient/relatives are told 'If we operate they might die Tosh for several reasons. The treatment of a fractured neck of femur is surgery. Even in very elderly. Very very rarely it managed conservatively.
People undergoing Bariatric surgery are encouraged to lose weight before hand to maximise the outcomes post operatively. Weight loss pre op leads to increased weight loss over twelve months post op. It’s not about safety.
Relatives may not be told that if the person has capacity and hasn’t agreed to it. Far too much watching Holly City.

I wouldn’t use Daily Mail as a source reference with expectations of reasonable interpretations either.
There are younger people affected but until post mortem nobody can possibly say with any degree of certainty that they did not have any underlying conditions such as pulmonary hypertension.

The mortality rate in 20-40 year olds is 0.01 -0.02%. Its sad that anyone dies from it but let’s not start spreading terror and nonsense that the NHS is filling up with dying 21year olds.

@Lougle Actually as an emergency nurse, we do know how decisions are made re who lives and who dies in disaster situations. Patients would be triaged on who is likely to survive and who isn't. A bit more complicated than that, but that's basically it.

@CherryPavlova

You think the woman in that article was lying?

You don't like the World Health Organisation or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) either, then, as I also linked to both of those.

How fucking pathetic. Why not take a photo of yourself in someone else's bedroom to prove how untrustworthy the Daily Mail is?

Nice guidelines just come out:

Nice advises medics to “base decisions on admission of individual adults to critical care on the likelihood of their recovery, taking into account the likelihood that a person will recover from their critical care admission to an outcome that is acceptable to them”.

The Charlson Comorbidity index gives an insight here into 10 year survival probabilities, considering age vs health issues. It is used, amongst other guidelines, to assess need.
This applies to all conditions, and is not exclusive to Coronavirus. Link ——
www.mdcalc.com/charlson-comorbidity-index-cci

@user1471447924 Thank you,so interesting.

@goldpartyhat you may well do, but it isn't as simple as 'if you're fat, tough luck' and it shouldn't be presented in that way. Even if was partly that way, it is a really unhelpful thing for people to be given the message that their lives are expendable if they are not in prime condition. EOL care is a very sensitive subject and should be treated as such whatever the forum, IMO.