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including the buying of the wheelchair and other stuff they needed. Since I used to buy equipment I sort of knew where and how to look,
Hugs about mother in law
And here is what I sent Mike
Mike this may not be nice, but what you described is CLASSIC TRIAGE. I used to first train in it, then train my people and was designated Medical Incident Commander more than once... yep I got to play god. As a former Medic... who's been there done that... I realize that if we have a massive pandemic the ability to treat mass amounts of people will go down to zilch, zero... nada This is standard triage I have, as a medic, let go of a young child who under any other circumstance I'd treat... and later watch die at the hospital. Why? Agonal breathing and brain mass coming out of her nose and ears... as well as some blood... most of those patients don't do well... and yes seeing her die wasn't easy either. I treated her grand dad.. who was salvageable. Not only do I still question myself for that decision, but I KNOW in my heart that grand dad had a hell of a survivor guilt... and at times I still see her deep blue eyes... and large, I mean this LARGE pupils... as in blown out pupils. Now that was a train wreck.... small by any standard when it comes to triage conditions I could also tell you of the young bride I sent to the hospital with a broken hip, while her younger brother was never treated, since he was not breathing when we arrived... I made the decision to tag him black... we had twenty others who were serious to critical and I only had five ambulances. In a mass event these two will be a walk in the park. and yes the guidelines are clear. If we have one of these, I will stay home and not even bother trying to get that attention Two reasons 1.- I will be triaged black... and yes I accept it 2.- No use in crowding ERs and sent home to spread it... or for that matter your local football field Now, there is much we as a nation could do to avoid this situation, but if we have a 1918 situation again, yes... this is standard triage and yes, you have to get medical teams in the same page. By the way, in case you wonder... their death rate will be the highest, comes with the job. But here are the list of pieces of equipment that will be in short supply very fast Respirators EKG machines Suction machines.... And those will be in short supply within hours of the pandemic breaking locally... so yes, they will need to use those resources for the people who might survive...
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