A week ago, as New York scrambled to fight against the late response to the Coronavirus pandemic, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, Derrick Smith, wrote a Facebook post that hit 6.8K shares to date.
Smith revealed the painful last words of a dying patient who needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator:
“Who’s going to pay for it?”
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COVID-19 cases in the United States passed 500,000 today, and deaths topped 20,000, while on the international front. Most coronavirus patients will die after being connected to ventilators, with the mortality rate reaching up to 80% in intubated patients.
Smith wrote of his patient’s question: “Last words I’ll never forget // the response my patient gasped out (between labored breaths) to me and my team after we explained that he needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator. We then called his wife to have him speak to her for what was likely his last opportunity, as many patients do not recover once tubed.”
According to Smith “This situation is by far the worst thing I’ve witnessed in my collective 12 years of critical care & anesthesia.” He continues his story:
“Next-level heartbreak = having to hear a dying patient use his last words to worry about healthcare finances. This country is truly a failed state, and it’s so sickening to witness firsthand, more blatantly than ever.
“As COVID-19 spreads around the world, now impacting over 700,000 people in 194 countries and territories, there is a clear difference in how well various countries are containing the pandemic. Those countries that have universal, publicly financed health care systems are better able to coordinate their responses and care for those who are ill. They have been the fastest to slow the spread of the virus.”
In the U.S tens of millions of people without health insurance or with inadequate insurance.
Smith wrote of his patient’s question: “Last words I’ll never forget // the response my patient gasped out (between labored breaths) to me and my team after we explained that he needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator. We then called his wife to have him speak to her for what was likely his last opportunity, as many patients do not recover once tubed.”
According to Smith “This situation is by far the worst thing I’ve witnessed in my collective 12 years of critical care & anesthesia.” He continues his story:
“Next-level heartbreak = having to hear a dying patient use his last words to worry about healthcare finances. This country is truly a failed state, and it’s so sickening to witness firsthand, more blatantly than ever.
“As COVID-19 spreads around the world, now impacting over 700,000 people in 194 countries and territories, there is a clear difference in how well various countries are containing the pandemic. Those countries that have universal, publicly financed health care systems are better able to coordinate their responses and care for those who are ill. They have been the fastest to slow the spread of the virus.”
Unlike most developed countries, in the U.S tens of millions of people without health insurance or with inadequate insurance.
