Translated account from an Italian surgeon.

[kpete]

The cases multiply, up to a rate of 15-20 hospitalizations a day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the emergency room is collapsing. Emergency provisions are issued: help is needed in the emergency room. A quick meeting to learn how the to use to emergency room EHR and a few minutes later I'm already downstairs, next to the warriors on the war front. The screen of the PC with the chief complaint is always the same: fever and respiratory difficulty, fever and cough, respiratory insufficiency etc ... Exams, radiology always with the same sentence: bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All needs to be hospitalized.

Some already needs to be intubated, and goes to the ICU. For others, however, it is late. ICU is full, and when ICUs are full, more are created. Each ventilator is like gold: those in the operating rooms that have now suspended their non-urgent activity are used and the OR become a an ICU that did not exist before. I found it amazing, or at least I can speak for Humanitas Gavazzeni (where I work), how it was possible to put in place in such a short time a deployment and a reorganization of resources so finely designed to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude. And every reorganization of beds, wards, staff, work shifts and tasks is constantly reviewed day after day to try to give everything and even more.

Those wards that previously looked like ghosts are now saturated, ready to try to give their best for the sick, but exhausted. The staff is exhausted. I saw fatigue on faces that didn't know what it was despite the already grueling workloads they had. I have seen people still stop beyond the times they used to stop already, for overtime that was now habitual. I saw solidarity from all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask "what can I do for you now?" or "leave that admission to me, i will take care of it." Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we are unable to save everyone and the vital signs of several patients at the same time reveal an already marked destiny. There are no more shifts, schedules.


https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/testimony-italian-surgeon-working-heart-italys-coronavirus-outbreak-6223837.html

[Leghorn21]

1. K&R

“Each ventilator is like gold: those in the operating rooms that have now suspended their non-urgent activity are used and the OR become a an ICU that did not exist before.“

[paleotn]

10. My healthcare spouse said that days ago....

Vents are key. Drag the old ones out of storage. They still work and will be desperately needed.

[abqtommy]

2. What I'm hearing is that in this case self-medicating, perhaps by relying on a person's private

physician, is a serious option. But the entire system is being flooded beyond effectiveness...

[getagrip_already]

3. Remember: Italy is only 3-4 weeks ahead of us on the curve...

That is exactly where every major city, and every regional medical center, will be. Forget the smaller rural hospitals. They won't have the resources or staff to juggle. They will just turn people away.

[hlthe2b]

4. My thoughts, my heart, my admiration goes out for them, just as it instills terror in my heart as to

what is coming. And the odds that we will react even half as responsibly.

[Leith]

5. There were already healthcare workers in China

who died from overwork and exhaustion.

https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/02/27/coronavirus-workers


I've been feeling some low level unease waiting for what may or may not happen. The level is rising slowly. Anyone else?

[liberalla]

11. Yes, I'm feeling it also. Sometimes more, sometimes less...

[MuseRider]

6. As a retired critical care nurse

this terrifies me. I was not terribly worried a month ago, began paying attention though as I watched China and the spread there.

As an older person who gets pneumonia easily, now I am truly worried. We will stock up on Monday, as of yesterday this state had not begun to panic shop although we got our first confirmed case yesterday. We have a lot here already but will buy for a month like we usually do. Being on the farm we are less likely to come into contact with anyone sick if we can just stay here.

[JudyM]

7. Sounds good. Still be careful with incoming mail.

[bronxiteforever]

8. Kick and recommend

[DallasNE]

9. Prevention Is The Only Hope

Otherwise doctors will be put in the position of choosing who gets treatment and who doesn't so what standards will be used.

And prevention means education. Where are the TV ads by the government to educate Americans on how to stay well. Yes, we have heard news accounts advising us to stay home and wash our hands but there is no soap in the stores due to hoarding by the few. And there is no paid sick days to use, only our 2 weeks of vacation. What then? Things are not looking good.

[paleotn]

12. +100,000,000 this.

...Prevention, education. Education, prevention.. non-stop. Otherwise, healthcare professionals get into triage situations they and we don't want them in.

[Nay]

13. No soap? There is tons of soap. Sure, there's no hand sanitizer, but so what? Soap

is better.

And don't forget that soap is soap -- you can wash your hands with shampoo, floor cleaner, face cleanser, baby bath , Woolite, dish detergent, laundry soap, anything that soaps up.

[matt819]

14. I see that this post was originally on a forum

These are the kind of honest assessments we need to hear from our own medical professionals - those in the hardest hit area - Seattle - and from the CDC and NIH.

I never thought that in the US this would be asking too much of our government, our fellow citizens, and our medical professionals.