Account by US paramedics

[Orangeblossom78]

I found this a bit disturbing to read, just to warn you if at all sensitive. (link)

Coronavirus in New York: A paramedic's diary
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52196815

I will give the link, it is on BBC today. Feel so sad reading this. How are these people not getting treated before getting to this stage? Is it the healthcare, or is the virus just this severe to be taking people before they are even being seen is it like this here? I hope not, but am unsure.

Wow. This final paragraph has left me speechless.

Not one of the 12 people suspected to have died of Covid-19 on Anthony's shift had been tested for coronavirus. As a result, their deaths were not included in the official coronavirus death toll in New York last Sunday, which stood at 594.

I know it is just overwhelmingly awful. And how they are basically dying at home without help, so quickly.

Can you imagine what the official death rate actually is?!! Trump is talking about being open for business again in May. He has no fucking clue does he.

I don't think I can read about the US situation anymore, it is just too awful. they are busying them on an island in mass graves.

Surely it is no better here. Our news is just more sanitised.

"New Yorkers have been shocked by the grim scenes: ambulances constantly blaring down eerily deserted streets, body bags being forklifted into refrigerated trucks outside hospitals and now new trenches being dug on Hart's Island for possible mass burials.

The remote cemetery, accessible only by boat, is a place regarded historically with sorrow because of its mass graves with no tombstones, just unclaimed bodies. The city's morgues can only handle so much before temporary burials for Covid-19 victims, once an absolute worst-case scenario, become necessary"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52249963

Are people really all mostly dying at home in cardiac arrest before they even get oxygen? If so that is terrible.

Here in the UK I mean.

Wow, that NY account 🙁 terrifying.

@Orangeblossom78 the island doesn't have mass graves in a sense of plague pits; it is always used to bury unclaimed New York dead. The difference is, they usually hold them for 30 days before burying them, they now hold them for 14. The graves are all marked and recorded so people can be disinterred if appropriate and reburied according to their families wishes. Routine business for NY.

Those paramedics sounded totally overwhelmed by calls. It is not like this here in this UK city. In fact the ambulances are all lined up -don't even seem very busy and I am near the hospital and rarely here a siren.

When I check online it says 77 cases confirmed from the start. So no, I don;t think it is like this here, not in this area anyway. And, I hope no-where else, as I heard the health services here were coping. Unless there is a lot I am not aware of.

It's awful. I think it's clear it's much worse than the statistics (china). Because none of the countries have the resources at the time to log all the deaths and many are at home.
I expect China actually had fewer at home because they took into hospitals all the feverish people.
I hadnt realised so many were having heart attacks.
I expect their chances would be at least slightly better if they were in hospital on o2 so not putting so much pressure on their hearts.
But i would think if they had a heart attack with this there is very little chance of survival as you then have a weak heart with a body overwhelmed with covid. Possibly they should be prioritising the breathlessness or like with BJ taking people in who still have a fever after so many days?

Yes I read this... Incredibly depressing... I don't know how they cope emotionally...

The death toll paragraph is possibly misleading. They won't have known the cause of death immediately so it would likely be recorded under Corona on a subsequent day. Same thing happens here. Eg weekend deaths aren't added to the records until midweek due to administration processes. That's why we have had a dip on the last two Mondays.

Harrowing account though. It does appear to be people not getting medical attention in time which is why we're not seeing the same here.

Yes people are dying at home here without o2. There was a bus driver who had been in then went home and his mum was calling 111? For help but he collapsed - hours later.
There was a nurse - young, who died at home.

I think the change can come on so suddenly. Which is why BJ was taken in... So its not like nhs/experts dont know.

We are or were only recording hospital deaths
Ons has all deaths but is delayed as only weekly

I presume there is a reluctance to seek medical help in the US because of cost.

Very concerning. How to know when to call for hep much be difficult especially if 111 are encouraging peopl

people to stay at home as much as possible, which seemed to be the advice given to start with anyway

Sorry- my computer seems to be posting for me mid message for some odd reason

I read the account this morning. It's truly terrifying. Some of the medics sleep in their car so they don't take 'it' home.

I think this is probably happening here as well. Almost all the stories of younger people dying with this in the media are saying they died at home. It correlates with my own experience of really struggling to breathe but waiting 3 hours for a 111 callback and then told I wasn't at the threshold for admission because I could say a few words together. I'm just one of the lucky ones, I'm sure many aren't.
Other countries are recommending early treatment, partly because people deteriorate so quickly it means they are already in hospital. We just don't have the resources to give that here and people are being actively refused help in these cases.

Yes, in the thread here on MN there was a mention of medics here in UK doing that also (sleeping in canpervans) so as not to take it home. At the Nightingale, they are being given hotel rooms nearby.

People are definitely staying home too long on the advice of 111 or paramedics and dying later (I have read a few accounts of this in the press). I would advise anyone who can’t speak in a sentence due to breathlessness or appear to have a blue tinge to their mouth/ nose to call 999 and not to bother on hold for hours to 111. Also confusion and agitation are also signs of low oxygen levels so call 999 if that is the case too.

People need to be aware and maybe call 999 I guess? If waiting for a ring back from 111. Might also be a time when having someone with you to call, the young nurse, well she had called an ambulance and left the door open but by the time they got there it was too late.