From an ICU Doctor in Brisbane.
/posts/10159489252013957
For your consideration .... this from clubbie
Sarah Neumann..... no media beat up, no agenda, just one of the humans on the frontline we will all be looking to. Help her out. Be a hero. Stay home.
#stayhome #netflixandsavelives
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Hi folks,
Those who don't know me, I'm a recently returned club member and an intensive care doctor.
Right now I'm scared, I don't get scared easily ... I'm used to adrenaline, risk and having lives (including my own) in my hands both through work and extreme sports.
CoVid-19 ... I'm downright terrified, I'm terrified because our data and case rate is replicating Italy. Our government is failing to undertake extreme measures needed to halt the pandemic or slow the transmission, all measures are being taken too late.
I'm terrified because based on on the Italy data I have maybe maximum two weeks, two weeks before life completely changes and the first wave of critically ill Covid patients hits my ICU.
Why am I telling you this? Because you are the group of people who need to stop spreading the illness. People need to stop asking how they can minimise their own risk of catching it and ask how they can stop spreading it.
Some of you have probably already been exposed, some will get sick and some won't. Younger people appear to display less symptoms or even none. But they infect others.
It's just a mild illness.... NO it's not. Many people will have a mild course of the illness but in Italy about 20-25% of people presenting to hospital needed ICU, this includes young adults with no medical history. The club is mixture of age groups but already in the over 40s and over 50s the complication and death rate goes up ... if you are male with blood pressure or heart conditions (even if well treated) your risk is higher.
In Lombardy Italy they have a better resourced health care system than here, BETTER resourced. They have more ICU beds per capita than we do. They are used to being able to offer Intensive Care support to all patient who need it.
Not any more, I just listened to an Italian doctors voice crack and she described how they now are leave 60-year-old patients with NO other significant medical issues on the ward to die because they cannot justify using the ICU bed for older patients when they need it for 35 or 40 year olds.
See it might be mild for most, but the huge number of cases means than even if a small percentage need intensive care - that's a huge number. We simply don't have the beds or resources.
We are about to enter a period of 3rd world health care. If you crash your bike and need trauma surgery we may not be able to access the operating theatre or give you an ICU bed. If you get bad appendicitis with severe infection, we may not be able to operate quickly or support you in ICU. If you or your partner is pregnant and there are life threatening complications of childbirth, we may not have a bed for you.
We desperately need you to help slow the progression of this pandemic, we can't stop it - we can only hope to slow the spread so that the demand on resources is spread over a longer time.
Please don't brush this off as business as usual, I bed you to consider the following:
- work from home if at all possible
- avoid groups of more than 5-10 people this includes riding, I would pick a small group you generally ride with and continue to ride with the same group - DO NOT swap between groups through the week
- I would strongly suggest that large rides and racing be put on hold - time for Zwift events
- Kids are unlikely to get seriously unwell, please don't worry about your kids the Italy scenario shows us that so few kids needed ICU they closed their paediatric ICU and are using it for adults.
5) avoid cinemas, shopping centers, restaurants and any social settings that aren't essential
6) keep your distance in social settings and avoid physical contact
I will also say this, in Italy they are treating their colleagues, they have doctors and nurses critical in ICU. Despite government assurances we DO NOT have enough protective equipment for health care workers. At some stage I will have to chose between treating my patients without adequate protection and protecting myself. I don't get to work from home.
Please help me, slow the spread. Both my parents are in the age group that would be denied ICU in Italy, as I'm sure most of you have parents and relatives in similar age groups. I know that soon I'll be forced to try and save younger lives over older ones.