Fox News Doc: It's Time For COVID-19 Patients To 'Come Off' Ventilators And Either Survive Or Die

[thucythucy]

42. As someone in the disability community comments like this scare the shit out of me.

I know and have known people who use ventilators and are catheterized. Some of them have MS, some have one or another form of muscular dystrophy. You can be on a ventilator and be mobile. In fact all the people I've known on ventilators also used power wheelchairs. The intubation you see in an ICU is meant to be temporary, the more permanent forms of intubation can often be better managed. So we're not necessarily talking about "warehouses of people." I hope and expect that many people--even those left with permanent impairments--will be able to resume life in the community--with the proper supports. To start switching off people in the expectation that their life from now on will be an unending misery would be absolutely tragic.

As for "limited resources," this society CHOOSES to limit those resources, and what's happening now is only the most recent, horrific example of this. Somehow, when it's a bank bailout or another war or a couple three nuclear powered aircraft carriers the resources are never ever "limited." We stockpile tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, but having an adequate supply of ventilators, PPEs, or even fucking face masks is somehow beyond us.

And we also have the ability to provide in-home care for people with even the most severe disabilities. Many states have independent living programs that provide just these sorts of assistance. It's not rocket science. It has and can done. I know spinal cord injured quadriplegics who are able to live in the community and even hold down full time jobs--given the support they need. We just have to decide as a society that providing this assistance is as big a priority as building giant sports stadiums or giving tax breaks to billionaires.

I understand what you're saying, and no one wants people to suffer unnecessarily. But that decision should be left to the individual or their proxy. To have doctors switching off someone's life because that person "is just using resources" is absolutely frightening to people like me.

If at the end of the day there remains a significant population of people who need to be on ventilators for the rest of their lives as a result of this illness, we should expend some effort in figuring out how we can assist them in coping with this, should they decide that's what they want. We should be able to come up with options between "giant warehouses" and "pull the plug."

Sorry to rant, but I felt I had to get that off my chest.

Best wishes, and please stay safe.