What happening behind the scenes of the struggle against COVID-19?

Someone working in the intensive care unit of a New York hospital described the outbreak’s situation there and one-to-one observations.

The situation is much worse than you expected. I don’t know, maybe a different and more deadly version of this virus may have come to the US, but I don’t believe in any statistics shared on the screens. In my opinion, the mortality rate is over 50% for those over 70, and around 10% for those under 50. Now I cannot say that I have enough patient data, but the data in my hospital where I work is like this.

In the hospital where I work, New York, this is the center of the people most affected by the epidemic.

We have approximately 60 confirmed patients with covid-19. Well, half the state of the neighborhood is counted. So, they are not connected to the respirator, but their symptoms are severe. They will be discharged within 1-week, new ones will be replaced. Three of these patients are from our teammates. Someone is a nurse. Someone is a pediatric doctor. Someone is a nurse. Although the situation of the nurse and doctor is very severe, we hope that they will recover and return to work soon. The nurses are very unlikely to live. He is not in intensive care and is not connected to the respirator at the request of his family.

Our hospital also has 25 fully equipped intensive care rooms. All 25 rooms are full. In fact, we have nearly 30 intensive care patients, together with those who expect to come to the intensive care unit in the emergency room. I’ll talk about 25 of them.

7 of them are here for reasons other than covid-19. Four of them are over 70 years old covid-19 patients. The average age of the remaining 14 patients is 47. They are all connected to the respirator. They are each at 100% oxygen and at least + peep +10 settings.

I want to talk a little about this peep and oxygen amount. Under normal conditions, there is 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen in the atmosphere and that amount of oxygen is enough for us. But sometimes it is not enough. If it is not enough, we can adjust it to 100% oxygen and automatically to 0% nitrogen thanks to the respirators.

There is also some pressure inside our lungs at normal atmospheric pressure. Let’s call this a natural peep. This is normally 3-4 cm h20 pressure. To increase oxygen in the blood, you either directly increase the oxygen density or the amount of pressure applied to the lungs. Oxygen increases with increasing pressure, but this has serious side effects to the lungs.

Anyway, let’s get back to young patients. Each one is in prone position. This position also relaxes the lungs a little and increases the oxygen in the blood.

Let me talk about past diseases.

One of our patients was AIDS, but he was taking his medication properly.
One of our patients gave birth 3 months ago.
All 3 are obese. bmi dimensions 32.

None of them have any other comorbidities. What our patients call prognosis, that is, their future is not very bright. Even if they live there are serious damage to their lungs. They will be out of breath while climbing the stairs. Of course, now our first concern is to keep them all alive, but at the same time, when we think about the long term, people think of themselves and their relatives.

I am generally considered healthy. But what about my mom? If this virus is transmitted to it, God forbid it is very bad. What about my brothers? they are still going to high school. Even if they get rid of the disease, their lungs are gone, is this life taken?

I warn you again, be very careful with yourself. Raise awareness of those around you.

In our elderly patients, for whom I did not elaborate on this detail, they were live-blooded people who talked up to 1 month and spent time with their grandchildren. Most of them have kidney failure, but they went to 4-hour dialysis 3 times a week to solve that problem. So, I think their quality of life was above average despite their age. Smart cultured people who do their own shopping. So, nobody should think that it is not worth living lives because they are old.

Even if everyone has the opportunity, if you see my patients in the intensive care unit. Family members cannot even visit because they are in quarantine. They come and take their bodies in the morgue. This is a fact of life. Our generation faced such a deadly outbreak for the first time. And taking this seriously is very important for the life of your own and your immediate surroundings.

Wash your hands thoroughly with soapy water. My hands are now irritated, but if you want to live, you will. Otherwise, you will expect the foreign scientists to get the vaccine as soon as possible. It is also early in the spring of 2021.

If I say more clearly;

Our entire hospital is currently full of patients suffering from covid-19 virus. Even everybody except mothers and babies in childbirth is covid positive. And we have more than 250 covid positive patients.

As the 25-room intensive care unit was normally inadequate, all of the units of the hospital that were used less and special procedures were converted into intensive care. Accordingly, equipped nurses were recruited. They made a very serious hike to everyone. Currently, approximately 100 rooms are of intensive care quality.

We have no serious deficiencies in personal protection equipment. While using our N95 masks in a single patient before, we now use them daily. There are plenty of protective gowns, glasses and gloves. We still throw them in the garbage after wire use.

Our main shortcoming is in medical equipment. Our oxygen cylinders are over. We can no longer give oxygen supplements to patients who we urgently fill the corridors. Obviously, we draw oxygen from other rooms with extension cables. Yes, this is the case in a prestigious hospital in New York.

It seems that we will be missing in respiratory equipment, but for now, the hospital made a serious purchase before the crisis started. We are lucky in that. Rather than we have a breathing apparatus, we have a shortage of personnel to handle those devices.

In the beginning, young (30-50 years old) patients were more frequent, but the most of our mistakes are people who are over 60 years old and generally have health problems as dishwashing increases. The mortality rate of our patients in this age group is very high.

It comes in patients who are young and have no other health problems. A 34-year-old man was connected to the ecmo device last night. His life is very high. Last night, a doctor friend of our 55-year-old hospital staff died. He was also a type 2 diabetic. But this death affected us a lot. We work together for up to 2 weeks, the energy is quite high; a young, fun and enjoyable person died from the corona virus.

We discharged our patients, who are not in intensive care unit, with an improvement in their symptoms and x-rays. We tell them to quarantine themselves at home. They are not ready to be discharged under normal conditions, but due to lack of room in the hospital, these procedures have been accelerated. And most of our patients who are not in intensive care are improving, regardless of age group. The young and old are all healing in some way. For now, the number of patients who died from this group is very low.

This virus is really dangerous. Do not say anything to me, I’m 20 years old. Even if you don’t die, you will be miserable. The risk of permanent damage to your lungs is very high.

This virus is not transmitted by air, but by contact with dirty surfaces by hand, and then by the contact of those dirty hands with tissues in the mouth, nose and eyes. so, it is essential that you wash your hands and not touch your hand no matter what your face is.

Source: eksisozluk.com