U.S. vet denied ICU bed due to COVIDIOT-caused COVID crisis dies of treatable illness

[CousinIT]

https://news.yahoo.com/u-vet-denied-icu-bed-165528672.html

When U.S. Army veteran Daniel Wilkinson started feeling sick last week, he went to the hospital in Bellville, Texas, outside Houston. His health problem wasn't related to COVID-19, but Wilkinson needed advanced care, and with the coronavirus filling up intensive care beds, he couldn't get it in time to save his life.

"He loved his country," his mother, Michelle Puget, told "CBS This Morning" lead national correspondent David Begnaud. "He served two deployments in Afghanistan, came home with a Purple Heart, and it was a gallstone that took him out."

Last Saturday, Wilkinson's mother rushed him to Bellville Medical Center, just three doors down from their home.

But for Wilkinson, help was still too far away.

If the American Taliban and their COVIDIOT cohorts want to scream about COVID and Afghanistan and all those lives they allegedly care about, why are they not angry at this shit?

[mopinko]

1. these hospitals need to keep some beds open.

send the covidiots elsewhere.
seems to me there are rules about this kind of shit that are being forgtten.

[Wingus Dingus]

2. Triage failure. This man was save-able.

ICU's need to stop intake of covid patients at a certain percentage level, always leaving several beds for traumas and emergent surgeries. This was a massive facility fail. Covid patients need to be at the bottom of triage now.

[TexasTowelie]

4. It's a 32 bed hospital in a rural county.

Hard to classify it as a "massive facility fail" when the facility isn't massive. They are probably unable to transfer any patients to hospitals in the region since they are also full.

As I mentioned below, elective surgeries are being deferred by the governor's executive order. I think that plays as much of a factor in the man's death as having a staffed ICU bed.

[Wingus Dingus]

6. The closest facility that could do his type of surgery

should have had a way to take him and perform the emergency procedure. He had an immediately life-threatening but treatable condition, there are many others: brain hemorrhage, abdominal aortic aneurysms, coronary artery blockage, etc.--he should not have been refused care at an equipped larger facility.

[TexasTowelie]

7. So the fault lies with someone else besides the Bellville Medical Center.

We shouldn't blame them for a triage failure when they were incapable of doing the surgery necessary. If anything, this shows that the Bellville Medical Center performed triage correctly since they provided care to those they could assist (even if they were unvaxxed and had COVID) and refused to admit someone they couldn't help.

The physician at Bellville Medical Center did attempt to find him a facility where he could receive the surgery and have an ICU bed for recovery. They didn't abandon him after triage and put him in an ER bed. I don't see where Bellville Medical Center did anything wrong and it isn't a massive facility fail. We don't even know how many of the 32 beds at the facility are being used by COVID patients.

The failures with triage and having available ICU space are problems with the larger hospitals. Attempting to blame a small facility which was not equipped to do that type of surgery would be a stretch if the man's family tries to file a lawsuit.

Yes, unfortunately some people with life-threatening conditions are going to be affected by COVID. My own health has probably been affected by COVID since my paperwork got lost in the shuffle and I had my right foot amputated last year. I'm not insensitive to the deaths that may occur, but attempting to play the blame game is also insensitive particularly if it is misdirected.

[Wingus Dingus]

13. Yikes, sorry about your amputation, that's awful.

To clarify, I'm using "facility failure" in the general sense, not blaming the rural hospital--I can't believe that a larger facility in the region could not or would not make room for a man who was only 46 and needed emergency life-saving surgery. Obviously smaller hospitals must have agreements with larger city hospitals to accept their transfers, I would think. I used to work as a nurse in a smaller regional hospital and we would send people to Denver when we were not able to handle their needs. This is getting to be third-world country stuff now.

[TexasTowelie]

15. The closest hospitals in that area are in the greater Houston area, Brenham, and Bryan.

I'm not certain that the hospital in Brenham is equipped to handle that surgery (the county has only 30,000 people). I live in the Bryan area and know that the hospitals here are at capacity with ER patients in the hallways.

[Rebl2]

9. Maybe

but a few people who are vaccinated still end up in the hospital.

[Wingus Dingus]

14. It sucks, but the rest of the non-covid-infected world can't be allowed to die

because so many idiots refuse to stop catching and spreading this disease. There needs to be limits on how many covid patients the facilities accept so that other types of patients can at least receive life-saving care, this is ridiculous. I do think that proof of vaccination should lend priority.

[Rebl2]

16. Agree with

what you have to say.

[TexasTowelie]

3. Bellville Medical Center is a 32 bed hospital in a rural area.

I used to live about 15 minutes north of there. I doubt that would have many ICU beds available since the most serious patients would be sent to other facilities such as Brenham, Katy, or Houston.

I'm more inclined to believe that Wilkinson's death can be attributed to the governor's executive order to defer elective surgeries as opposed to a lack of beds.

[LisaL]

5. They weren't equipped to do the surgery the guy needed.

They were trying to send him to a bigger hospital but those had no ICU beds available.

[TexasTowelie]

8. The situation is unfortunate and I certainly can relate.

In addition to being diabetic, I recently found out that I'm anemic also. I have infrequent pains in my chest and abdomen so I keep my fingers crossed that I don't have to return to the hospital until after the pandemic.

There will likely be more cases where people cannot find adequate care. While I can't prove it in a court of law, I suspect that my foot amputation was a consequence of how COVID affected things on the administrative side of health care. The effects of COVID will have consequences for many which is sad and frustrating.

[JoanofArgh]

10. You can listen to the doctor's account.

He searched for an ICU bed for five hours including pleading with people on Facebook. Horrible.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[keithbvadu2]

11. Just another military 'sucker and loser' acc to Trump.

Just another military 'sucker and loser' acc to Trump.

He is not meaningful to Trump's anti-vaxxers.

[ffr]

12. Cartoon.

MAGAt will no doubt bite them as soon as they help him survive too.