Dad, 27 dies days after discharging himself from A&E over fear he’d catch covid

[OrangesAndLemons2]

metro.co.uk/2021/01/21/dad-27-dies-after-discharging-himself-from-ae-over-covid-fears-13940963/

I really think the media needs to be held accountable for this. The complete blanket reporting on covid and the constant doom stories are keeping people terrified. Yes, awareness needs to be raised so that people follow the rules and guidelines. But when it comes to something like this, somebody, a young person, too scared to get help for another potentially life threatening issue, then it becomes a big problem.

You realise that article contains no quote from the hospital?

That - strongly - suggest it's based on an interview with the man's wife.

And her knowledge will be based on what he told her.

Was he really placed in a 'Covid ward'? Or a ward of people awaiting Covid results?

We don't know.

There's no substance notation from the hospital.

Going by what I've experienced, being placed in a ward designated for the treatment of Covid patients is somewhat unlikely.

It really is.

For a start, the treatment is specialised and specific.

Plus, investigation for chest pains is usually done with initial tests and then, often while still in A and E, unless requiring immediate action, done as an outpatient.

I'm pretty sure the writer of the story hasn't run this past the hospital - who won't be able to comment at this stage anyway.

It's all very sad.

But, you know, we do know that young men in particular are very bad at presenting themselves for health issues, generally, not just during the pandemic. 🤷‍♀️

The other day I had to go to hospital for a chest X-ray.

I'm a very rational person with a good understanding of, and attitude to, risk. But having to wait for over an hour really freaked me out. The waiting room was small and stuffy, so I hung around in the corridor. But the corridor was surprisingly busy from passing footfall, and I really felt unsafe. I couldn't get out quick enough.

We've been primed to stay safe by people telling us to see Covid danger everywhere. It's not surprising that in the end, our subconscious takes over, however sensible we might be.

I can now totally understand why people in A&Emight change their minds about whether they want to be there. Poor guy and family though.

@thecatfromjapan

You realise that article contains no quote from the hospital?

That - strongly - suggest it's based on an interview with the man's wife.

And her knowledge will be based on what he told her.

Was he really placed in a 'Covid ward'? Or a ward of people awaiting Covid results?

We don't know.

There's no substance notation from the hospital.

Going by what I've experienced, being placed in a ward designated for the treatment of Covid patients is somewhat unlikely.

It really is.

For a start, the treatment is specialised and specific.

Plus, investigation for chest pains is usually done with initial tests and then, often while still in A and E, unless requiring immediate action, done as an outpatient.

I'm pretty sure the writer of the story hasn't run this past the hospital - who won't be able to comment at this stage anyway.

It's all very sad.

But, you know, we do know that young men in particular are very bad at presenting themselves for health issues, generally, not just during the pandemic. 🤷‍♀️

Good point we also don’t know what he died of so there is no guarantee that staying hospital would have meant he lived. All we really know is he went to a&e and chose to leave and died. There’s a lot of info missing to draw any conclusions about blame

it is sad but it was his choice and its just the wife saying what he told her we dont have the hospitals response

if youre admitted you shouldnt discharge yourself without having tests or they wouldnt have admitted you i the firs tplace if you didnt need to be there

Does that article say what exact cause of his death was? I diddn't see it.

Am the only one thinking he could have been seen, diagnosed that day & still died 27 days later because he was still waiting for treatment. This could have happened in normal times, not just when NHS overwhelmed with covid patients.

:-( for the family, of course. There are so many casualties of current crisis.

A 27 year old has a very low risk of dying from covid. The media wont explicitly say that and when you mention it in public, you will be shouted down by a certain contingent

Hold on a minute...how do you know a 27 year old has a very low risk of dying from Covid? Because you read it in the media! It' all over the media, that's how we all know you are correct!

I thought the government was complaining that people weren’t behaving because they weren’t scared enough any more? You can’t have it both ways. Blame project fear if you will blame something.

@TriggersBroom I am really really sorry to hear about your DH. Sending much love.

Spreading unverified reports by journalists that increase public ignorance and fear about current hospital procedures and best medical practice, only puts more lives at risks.

Absolutely, as it should be held accountable for terrifying people into thinking 'if I catch covid, I WILL die.' I think some people will never live normally again.

@TriggersBroom

My DH caught covid in hospital and died.

So sorry for your loss, TriggersBroom. How are you coping?

@TriggersBroom

My DH caught covid in hospital and died.

@TriggersBroom I am so ,so sorry for your loss

Unfortunately the risk of catching covid when you are a hospital Inpatient particularly in a bay is significant.
The numbers of cases and deaths are everywhere in the media . We also know that the elderly BAME and obese are at risk. We know that it would be unusual for a 26 year old to be very sick or die.
It’s sad that a 26 year old felt that his risk of dying was high but you can’t blame the media . The Information is there for us all to see.

@TriggersBroom- so sorry for your loss.

@borntohula

Absolutely, as it should be held accountable for terrifying people into thinking 'if I catch covid, I WILL die.' I think some people will never live normally again.

If that's the message some people are deriving ... they can't be helped.

As multiple posted on here have said, again and again, 'the media' is filled with facts. Facts derived from real, peer-reviewed studies.

If you manage to ignore all of those studies, dream up your own phantom of some weird 'Project Fear' - which bears no relation to fact-based media ... well, you're I ambling through life in a whole wonderful world of weirdness that is impervious to Reason.

God bless you if you're in that place.

As multiple posters have pointed out, the whole reason you're able to point out that coronavirus infection does not mean an inevitable death for those without vulnerabilities and young is because this has been fully reported in the media.

I mean, where else did you get that information? Intuition? A seance? From a psychic?

No. It's based on science. Reported in the media.

And 'Project Fear' - what is that? The media are reporting coronavirus is highly infectious and placing enormous strain on hospitals.

That's a fact, too.

You can't invent some media hallucination, which bears no relation to what reputable media are actually reporting, call it 'Project Fear', and then complain about 'the media' being full of it - because you've invented it yourself.

Why don't you try watching or reading some actual media, rather than just inventing what media might be reporting?

We have no idea what he died off. The article said that he was out in the ward awaiting results. Surely the results would have been considered and would/should have been called back if they indicated something serious.

They wouldn't have kept him in a bad for that length of time, covid or not.

So either something went wrong with the results and there was a cockup with his follow up or his death has nothing to do with the reason why he went in, or these tests didn't identify the problem, all with the same outcome of he'd stated there for a few more hours.

Hey at lest this article sold some advertising in the paper
I don’t believe the hospital put him on a COVID ward chances are he was on a ward with ‘unconfirmed’ people who may or may not have it. You can hot blame the hospital for that makes total sense to me.
Sounds more like the family are now trying to raise money for his funeral and thought they could sell the story to the paper by dramatising it.
How come he didn’t have life insurance to protect his family?

@thecatfromjapan

Fallox But he wasn't on a Covid ward. I don't see how you would read that article as suggesting you could

• present at A and E to have chest pains investigated

and

• end up admitted to a Covid ward

I really don't.

He feared that - apparently - but people fear all sorts of things.

There have been plenty of media articles about how hospitals have separated Covid wards from other areas of the hospital (which is partly why the NHS is so stretched).

Plus why would chest pains be treated on a Covid ward?

The story is tragic but I don't think you can blame the media for this.

If anything, I suspect it may be an argument that mainstream media is more careful and truth-grounded than hearsay and Facebook posts.

Absolutely!

Thank you all those who have posted kind messages and much love particularly to @peachgreen and others who have lost loved ones. And also to @InTheShadowOfTheMushroomCloud .

LIke others on this thread, my DH went into hospital with heart problems. He hadn't been well for a while, and when I finally got him to see a GP she sent him to the local hospital immediately for tests. We was given the option to come home but they strongly recommended he stayed in where they could monitor him. He weighed up the risks and stayed in. Of course, I've gone through the "what if" scenarios, but he could equally have come out and ended up dying from a heart attack like the bloke in the article.

@Fufumuji

A 27 year old has a very low risk of dying from covid. The media wont explicitly say that and when you mention it in public, you will be shouted down by a certain contingent

Hold on a minute...how do you know a 27 year old has a very low risk of dying from Covid? Because you read it in the media! It' all over the media, that's how we all know you are correct!

10s of '000s of students have caught CV and are perfectly fine a few weeks later.

The tragedy here is that the NHS never had the time to check up on him, after he discharged himself and that the NHS clearly overwhelmed, it's coping with CV but everything else is being delayed.

The tragic thing about this fucking pandemic is that people are dying because they are scared of going into hospital and people without the virus are dying because they do go into hospital. And nobody has a crystal ball to predict which way it will go for each case.

TriggersBroom That's utterly tragic. I really am so sorry for your loss.

Please try to look after yourself.
You did the absolute best you could.
I hope that, as time goes on, you'll remember the joy of his life more often than the sadness.

@TriggersBroom

The tragic thing about this fucking pandemic is that people are dying because they are scared of going into hospital and people without the virus are dying because they do go into hospital. And nobody has a crystal ball to predict which way it will go for each case.

Yes, very much so. It's awful.

And on top of that, people are dying because there are too many in hospital.

And on top of that, people are dying because there are too many in hospital

If we had started this pandemic with a similar health service as say Germany or France, we would not be in the same predicament as we currently are.
Germany, pre CV, had far more critical care beds, nurse and Dr's than the UK.

Sure, no country have have everything they need in a pandemic, we are just worse than we should be.

jasjas1973

To be fair, my hospital increased its critical care beds by 40% at the start of the pandemic, and it still isn't enough. We are a large teaching hospital, biggest in our area, and we are still struggling massively. The NHS has a chronic underfunding issue so yes, is in a fairly sorry state but we'd still be in a mess regardless.