A FL Boy Went to a COVID-Swamped ER. He Waited for Hours. Then His Appendix Burst.

[Malmsy]

This is how the COVID unvaccinated are a danger to everyone else - even the vaccinated. Next time I see one of those "If you're vaccinated, why do you care if I'm not?" memes, I'm sharing this.

"Seth was finally diagnosed with appendicitis more than six hours after arriving at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health North Hospital in late July. Around midnight, he was taken by ambulance to a sister hospital about a half-hour away that was better equipped to perform pediatric emergency surgery, his father said.

But by the time the doctor operated in the early morning hours, Seth’s appendix had burst — a potentially fatal complication.


As the nation’s hospitals fill and emergency rooms overflow with critically ill COVID-19 patients, it is the non-COVID-19 patients, like Seth, who have become collateral damage. They, too, need emergency care, but the sheer number of COVID-19 cases is crowding them out. Treatment has often been delayed as ERs scramble to find a bed that may be hundreds of miles away.

Some health officials now worry about looming ethical decisions. Last week, Idaho activated a “crisis standard of care,” which one official described as a “last resort.” It allows overwhelmed hospitals to ration care, including “in rare cases, ventilator (breathing machines) or intensive care unit (ICU) beds may need to be used for those who are most likely to survive, while patients who are not likely to survive may not be able to receive one,” the state’s website said."

https://www.propublica.org/article/a-boy-went-to-a-covid-swamped-er-he-waited-for-hours-then-his-appendix-burst

[thucythucy]

1. Perhaps every hospital should have a quota for unvaccinated Covid patients

and reserve a certain percentage of beds for everyone else.

Just spitballing here, but: keep 20% of ICU and other beds reserved for everything but the unvaccinated Covid patients. Once the Covid beds fill up do triage for those patients, even if there are empty beds reserved for others.

The 20% figure is my arbitrary number, but hospital staff would be in charge of deciding their own figure.

As a person with a disability with lots of disabled friends, I find the idea of these "looming ethical decisions" quite frightening. I can just imagine someone in a wheelchair with a non-Covid related issue being turned away because of "quality of life" while some unvaccinated jerk sucks up resources and puts everyone else at risk.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I've been saying this for a month

At some point - other non covid health concerns need to be treated.

If you are vaccinated - absolutely I want you in that hospital bed. I would go so far as to say - the 20% should be first priority to the vacinnated.

[Ilsa]

5. I tend to agree. While medical professionals

are not supposed to be judgmental about why a patient presents to the Emergency Department, those unvaccinated people had a chance, and they declined for spiteful, political reasons. They should endure the consequences just like everyone else.

[forgotmylogin]

11. The bible talked about leper colonies.

I'm not saying we should move people to an island, but perhaps specialized satellite COVID wards may be necessary to leave ER open for actual non COVID emergencies.

[Paladin]

24. +1000. Let these science deniers reap what they've sown. (nt)

[FM123]

2. Such a heartbreaking story!

Another article about poor Seth:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/icu-non-covid-patients-wait/

[GoodRaisin]

4. It is sad we live in a country with so many selfish pricks that

don’t care that their selfishness is putting so many others at risk.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

6. I'm doing well...you can go fuck yourself"

The defining credo of the right-wing dipshit. They’ll even wheeze it from their ICU bed as the team prepares to intubate.

[patphil]

7. Ron DeSantis is guilty of deliberate, pre-meditated murder.

Because of his deliberate blocking of simple actions that could dramatically slow the spread of the disease, the people who die from Covid in Florida are on him, as are any people who die as a result of care delayed due to overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff.

[Malmsy]

30. His political ambitions and hubris are bloodstained now. (eom)

[rainin]

8. I think hospital staff should be permitted to immediately remove an unvaccinated patient from ICU

when that bed is needed. Say 'we'll treat you as long as no one else needs it, but we won't deny care to non-covid emergencies or vaccinated patients" EVER

[LisaL]

10. They will have to do something.

ICU beds around here are pretty much full.
I don't see why willfully un-vaxxed covid patients should be getting all the ICU beds, depriving everybody else of medical care. Put some beds into Wearhouse or something for all the un-vaxxed. Maybe a barn since they already taking horse paste?

[roamer65]

32. Because they are special widdle snowflakes who deserve care.

To everyone else…they say “fuck your feelings”.



None of these willfully unvaccinated should be in any other bed than a palliative care quarantine bed.

[calimary]

22. Yes. THIS.

Actually, non-vaxxed COVID sufferers should have a separate tented clinic in the back. The formal, full-service ICU is reserved for others in need.

[IronLionZion]

9. Unvaccinated COVID patients should stay home with their horse meds

and ask their conspiracy nutjob friends on social media for advice instead of taking socialized medicines they don't know.

[leftieNanner]

12. Exactly!

They don't trust the science when it comes to the vaccine, but then when they get gravely ill, they run to the science to be cured.

SMDH

[Ford_Prefect]

17. They seem to have no problem with the science underlying selfies and the internet.

Or the science that established the hospitals and trained the health professionals they run to for medical science to be practiced once bitten by COVID.

Oh My!

I wonder just how long it will take for those who survive to turn back into the next Q spouting lynch mob. I suspect the answer is not long at all. I am not impressed that they are motivated by anything other than fear. It is the fix those addicted need to to keep filling.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. Rewarding the vaccine negligent with a hospital spot is insane

Normal medical emergencies should take priority. Things like gall bladder and appendix are short term stays.

[NoMoreRepugs]

14. Funny how covidiots seek out medical care for something that they have scoffed at and

end up being a BURDEN on the rest of us, when they ahave always complained about those needing help not helping themselves and yanking up those f'en bootstraps.

[RVN VET71]

15. Every erg of pain Seth suffered should be multiplied 100x and given to the Governor

He’s an evil man. No, I’m not exaggerating. That s.o.b. is evil to the marrow, seeking to feather his political nest while children are left suffering. Would that there were an Old Testament God, scowling in anger at the damage DeSantis is doing to the people in his care, and issuing punishment of biblical proportions to DeSantis and the other ugly, heartless, soulless psychopaths running Florida’s GOP government.

[getagrip_already]

16. I have to really wonder what criteria is really being used to ration beds and vents....

Is it really just medical triage, or is there a heavy element of social triage being done?

Who exactly is being rejected and what racial groups are they part of?

Just a hunch here.....

[NoSheep]

18. That governor should be declared criminally insane.

[AZLD4Candidate]

19. Welcome to the new norm. Medical emergencies get put to the back burner for unvaccinated

narcissists that scream "my body my choice" (except for abortion), the demand to be at the front of the line with Coronavirus lays its hands on them.

Disease is nature's population control and nature is a brutal census taker.

[The Mouth]

21. Nature bats last

[The Mouth]

20. Willfully unvaccinated idiots should be shown the door

Die, please, and raise the average IQ

We should have no more tolerance for these evil cretins than we do for someone driving around firing a gun into buildings or crowds.

Just. Go. Die. Assholes.

[calimary]

23. It's hard not to agree with this. So I won't.

The willfully-unvaxxed should heed the long-cherished creed of the Republican party: “you’re on your own.”

[Dream Girl]

27. Nah, they'll just do a ready sad go fund me. With weepy stories about their six kids, a one

Year old and one on the way

[AZLD4Candidate]

29. I remember seeing a sign here from a School Board Meeting

"parental rights over children's health."

I forgot to book mark the post. But they don't care about their children. They only care that their political, social, economic, and narcissistic needs are being met.

[calimary]

31. Their "rights" are all wrong.

[Mme. Defarge]

25. I have survived two emergency surgeries for

different life threatening conditions during my long life - one was for a ruptured appendix and peritonitis - and neither was “optional. There are no words that can adequately express my outrage over the ongoing depraved indifference to human life we are witnessing/experiencing that is nothing short of malevolent.

[Shrike47]

26. I am among those supporting limiting care for the willfully unvaccinated. Vaccine is an I.Q. test.

They failed it.

[tblue37]

28. Can you imagine the pain that poor child was in?

[MustLoveBeagles]

34. It makes me want to scream

[MustLoveBeagles]

33. Completely outrageous

That poor kid. Can you imagine what it was like for his parents to watch their son suffer for hours and be helpless to do anything about it?