Cancer and heart patients dying because of government-imposed shut downs
The beatings will continue until morale improves: Because state governments nationwide have forbid the entire healthcare system from treating anyone for anything that might in a rare instant be considered “non-essential”, cancer and heart patients are dying from lack of treatment.
Two stories from the article:
Although canceling procedures such as elective hernia repairs and knee replacements is relatively straightforward, for many interventions the line between urgent and nonurgent can be drawn only in retrospect. As Brian Kolski, director of the structural heart disease program at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, California, told me, “A lot of procedures deemed ‘elective’ are not necessarily elective.” Two patients in his practice whose transthoracic aortic valvular replacements were postponed, for example, died while waiting. “These patients can’t wait 2 months,” Kolski said. “Some of them can’t wait 2 weeks.” Rather than a broad moratorium on elective procedures, Kolski believes we need a more granular approach. “What has been the actual toll on some of these patients?” he asked.
Mr. R., a 75-year-old man with advanced heart failure, is another of Kolski’s patients for whom the toll has been great. Because he had progressive volume overload and delirium, Kolski referred him to a hospital for an LVAD workup in early March. Then, as his wife, Ms. R., told me, “the world went wonky, and everything went down the toilet.” Having begun admitting patients with coronavirus, the hospital told the couple it was kicking everyone else out. “They are telling me my husband has 6 to 12 months to live without this procedure,” Ms. R. said, “and now they are canceling it on us.” They were then quarantined at home — 2 hours away from the hospital — with no plan in place. Mr. R.’s health quickly deteriorated again, but his wife had been advised to keep him out of the hospital. When they finally had a video visit on April 9, he’d become so ill that the heart failure physician didn’t recognize him. Mr. R. was promptly admitted, and the LVAD was placed. Though Ms. R. is relieved, ongoing challenges include her husband’s persistent delirium, a visitor policy that allows her to be at the bedside only intermittently, and the need for nearby lodging that they can’t afford.
There are others. Read it all. I will also bet these doctors then wrote a fraudulent death certificate, claiming the heart patients died of the Wuhan flu.
This reminds me of my experience with my lung specialist. Unlike these people, I would not take no for an answer. How dare these doctors allow a heart patient to die because of a government edict?!
But we can’t let COVID-19 kill anyone, even if it means more people die from other causes!
This is madness, at a very high level.
And are you enraged yet? Or will you sit with folded hands while these tyrants smash their boots into your face?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The beatings will continue until morale improves: Because state governments nationwide have forbid the entire healthcare system from treating anyone for anything that might in a rare instant be considered “non-essential”, cancer and heart patients are dying from lack of treatment.
Two stories from the article:
Although canceling procedures such as elective hernia repairs and knee replacements is relatively straightforward, for many interventions the line between urgent and nonurgent can be drawn only in retrospect. As Brian Kolski, director of the structural heart disease program at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, California, told me, “A lot of procedures deemed ‘elective’ are not necessarily elective.” Two patients in his practice whose transthoracic aortic valvular replacements were postponed, for example, died while waiting. “These patients can’t wait 2 months,” Kolski said. “Some of them can’t wait 2 weeks.” Rather than a broad moratorium on elective procedures, Kolski believes we need a more granular approach. “What has been the actual toll on some of these patients?” he asked.
Mr. R., a 75-year-old man with advanced heart failure, is another of Kolski’s patients for whom the toll has been great. Because he had progressive volume overload and delirium, Kolski referred him to a hospital for an LVAD workup in early March. Then, as his wife, Ms. R., told me, “the world went wonky, and everything went down the toilet.” Having begun admitting patients with coronavirus, the hospital told the couple it was kicking everyone else out. “They are telling me my husband has 6 to 12 months to live without this procedure,” Ms. R. said, “and now they are canceling it on us.” They were then quarantined at home — 2 hours away from the hospital — with no plan in place. Mr. R.’s health quickly deteriorated again, but his wife had been advised to keep him out of the hospital. When they finally had a video visit on April 9, he’d become so ill that the heart failure physician didn’t recognize him. Mr. R. was promptly admitted, and the LVAD was placed. Though Ms. R. is relieved, ongoing challenges include her husband’s persistent delirium, a visitor policy that allows her to be at the bedside only intermittently, and the need for nearby lodging that they can’t afford.
There are others. Read it all. I will also bet these doctors then wrote a fraudulent death certificate, claiming the heart patients died of the Wuhan flu.
This reminds me of my experience with my lung specialist. Unlike these people, I would not take no for an answer. How dare these doctors allow a heart patient to die because of a government edict?!
But we can’t let COVID-19 kill anyone, even if it means more people die from other causes!
This is madness, at a very high level.
And are you enraged yet? Or will you sit with folded hands while these tyrants smash their boots into your face?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I have an easily managed chronic condition due to past chemotherapy which requires occasional blood tests and daily medication. I’m badly overdue for these tests and refills having been turned away from the hospital three times. By edict of a county judge who has reserved the hospitals for covid patients only. The hospital is neatly empty and my oncologist lost seven patients from complications of cancer last week because they were denied treatment. By edict of that judge. Covid only! These deaths were required to be recorded as due to covid. By edict of this judge. Thankfully the Governor is stepping in to resend this order the 22nd. This is not the first the County commission or Governor has had to clip his wings.
NYT: The Pandemic’s Hidden Victims: Sick or Dying, but Not From the Virus
* https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/health/treatment-delays-coronavirus.html
The article discusses postponed cancer treatment, organ transplant issues, and neurosurgery delays.
Even if you can find a hospital still capable of delivering therapy, you may not be able to get the treatment material. In the case of radioisotopes, your window is on the order of hours from the time of production. Any hiccup in the just-in-time delivery system and what gets delivered is a vial of waste. Governors could be allocating Air National Guard assets to replace commercial air transport, but that would be inconvenient.
The most common medical radioisotope, technetium-99m (Tc-99m). It accounts for about 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures and 85% of diagnostic scans in nuclear medicine worldwide. Mo-99 is the precursor to Tc-99m, which has a 6 hour half-life before decaying to Tc-99g. That give you a really short working window to have a useful product.
https://www.ans.org/news/article-67/mo99-supply-put-at-risk-by-covid19-pandemic/
Welcome to the Canadian system!
Adding to the Covid related deaths.
Virginia’s Governor announced that he would not reopen businesses until 14 days of declining cases.
The news had been talking up the fact that we had 3 days of declining numbers, so today they added “probable” cases to the count, which shot it back up.
This may be the most appropriate response to the overreaching tendencies of some of these Leftist wana be Marxist overlords. Made me laugh out loud. Eat a bag of these “special” gummies Mr. mayor, right up your alley. Just a junior NAZI that despises the Constitution and all that it represents.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/de-blasios-social-distancing-tip-line-flooded-with-obscenities/
And of course DeBlasio is the most incompetent and inconsequential of them all, a total fraudulent failure. Earlier today I heard him saying that “He will NOW order 3000 special breathing assist machines so as to have them on hand so if there was another emergency in the future the city will be prepared!”.
And he went on to say, “We won’t be depending on the Federal government who obviously has done such and incompetent and poor job”.
(And you all are well aware of how the terrified mayor and governor were like crying howling babies with their demands to the federal government for those respirators that they failed to actually have in their own hospitals and store houses)
What gall.
Of course forgetting that HE as the mayor of NYC had and has the responsibility, just like governor Como, to not spend their resources on things other than those special breathing machines that he was recommended to have in case of a future pandemic. What a fraudulent Marxist stooge DeBlasio is, and the Governor is not far behind.
Typical incompetent “I didn’t do it” Leftist finger pointer, a waste of breathing air if you ask me. God I despise that man.
Another report from the real world:
Just spoke with a customer, she came in dark glasses and all wrapped up. She is usually very friendly and up.
I say, “You look very mysterious today”.
Then she tells me that she has been delivering food to a friend of hers, 55 yo man, who was sick with the virus. She spoke to him last night after the EMS workers came to his house because he called them to take him to the hospital. They told him that he did not look that bad and left him in his home.
She called him this morning to check on him, and he did not answer his phone. And will not be answering his phone in the future, no need for a phone where he is now. Compliments of the Communist Chinese leadership.
Rick, what is the shutdown like in Virginia? Is it true that, unlike Michigan, non-essential businesses have been allowed to remain open as long as they don’t involve close contact, like bars, dine-in restaurants, hair dressers / barbers, massage parlors, movie theaters, etc. If so, what will reopening involve? Will it involve those close-contact businesses?
I live in a city that has a world famous medical center. We’ve had various Arabian kings visit here and all that. As of last week 35% of hospital & 25% of surgical capacity was in use. They took in 7 Covid positive patients yesterday and discharge 20.
In simple terms, they aren’t busy. The labs are though in terms of being able to process 10K tests each day with ramping up to more. They also have a budget hole of $900 million to fill. They quietly starting to take in the ‘non-essentials’ again while leaving plenty of capacity.
There’s your death panels that will never happen.
I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in March, just before the world blew up. Still waiting to see a cardiologist. Not trying to be a hypochondriac, but telephone appointments seem a tad inadequate. They haven’t even finished testing yet. Luckily I am working from home at the moment, which helps reduce the stress l am supposed to be avoiding.
“Canceling procedures such as elective hernia repairs and knee replacements is relatively straightforward” … nope. Here in Ohio a doctor was quoted as saying his patient’s knee replacement surgery was canceled. As a consequence, she fell and broke her hip. But hey, covid is all-important.
Rose: you asked about Virginia. I’m in Ohio, but I can tell you that way back in March, Gov. Northam ordered the state shut down until June 10. I know for a fact that restaurants are shut down except for take-out. Major historical sites (Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown/Yorktown) are all closed, at a very considerable loss.
I must add that I was speaking to a dentist yesterday who practices in Virginia. He is shut down and even when he reopens he expect he will be forbidden from having more than one patient in his office at a time. He expects patients will have to wait months to get treatment.
I told him to tell Northam to go to hell and treat his patients as he always did. If they try to stop him he can sue, and he will win, both politically and legally.