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'All our ICU patients are in their 50s or younger' – frontline Welsh doctor

2 points by DanBC 7y ago

DanBC 7y ago
This is a 20 minute interview with an ICU doctor in Wales. He talks about the pressures on intensive care, about the reduction in capacity and how they'll have to overflow to other areas quite soon; he talks about the difference in intensive care for covid-19 patients and other patients (all staff are in full PPE all the time, which isn't normal, and the covid-19 patients in ICU are more ill than other patients in ICU); he talks about good morale in the circumstance. He also talks about the unexpected impact on younger patients -- all their ICU patients are in their 50s or younger, and do not have comormid conditions. He speaks about the distress of people not being able to have visitors, and of having to think about how family members can be with their loved ones as those people die. He talks about the mechanism of death, which includes respiratory failure, multi-organ failure, but he says the main cause is myocarditis. He speaks about his experience of having and recovering from covid-19. It's a great interview and well worth watching. The UK went into covid-19 with fewer doctors, nurses, beds, ICU beds, per 100,000 population than most other EU countries.
wsc981 7y ago
In The Netherlands around 90% of ICU patients are obese [0]. --- [0]: https://northerntimes.nl/umcg-investigates-possible-link-between-weight-and-covid-19-illness/ https://northerntimes.nl/umcg-investigates-possible-link-bet...
klingonopera 7y ago
> "All our ICU patients are in their 50s or younger" I was expecting a Triage-scenario to be the cause of this, but since they're not just yet at capacity, that can't be the case either. How is this anomaly to be explained? EDIT: Apparently, they are over-capacity, I was left under the impression, they hadn't turned anyone away from ICU... nevertheless, I still don't understand how that anomaly is possible... it's statistically very unlikely: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8181359/Doctor-returns-work-recovering-coronavirus-capacity-intensive-care-unit.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8181359/Doctor-retu...
- op03 7y ago
  13 patients is not a big anomaly. Check the historic number for respiratory related illnesses and deaths for the region and you will have context. Could be a lot of smokers .
  - klingonopera 7y ago
    Yeah, but for a virus that even more heavily affects older people, it's super unlikely you'd get 13 under-60s and not a single over-60. It's like flipping a coin and getting 13 times heads, possible, but super unlikely. And we're not even talking about odds of 50:50, but 33:67 for young/old. So, he got 13 times heads in a row? If yes, he's probably at the only hospital in the world to have that kind of a luck. EDIT: The odds for 13 times heads in a row, is about 0.01%. So, one in 10,000 hospitals... hm, ok, that does seem likely to occur more than once on a global scale.
    - op03 7y ago
      Agree we wouldn't be hearing about it if it wasn't odd. Just saying subtract out what conditions/ages in normal times occupy those beds and the odds will change. But I am too lazy to do it - https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/Births-Deaths-and-Conceptions/Deaths/Deaths-by-Cause https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Car... https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...
foolzcrow 7y ago
Scare tactics 101

2 points by DanBC 7y ago

This is a 20 minute interview with an ICU doctor in Wales. He talks about the pressures on intensive care, about the reduction in capacity and how they'll have to overflow to other areas quite soon; he talks about the difference in intensive care for covid-19 patients and other patients (all staff are in full PPE all the time, which isn't normal, and the covid-19 patients in ICU are more ill than other patients in ICU); he talks about good morale in the circumstance. He also talks about the unexpected impact on younger patients -- all their ICU patients are in their 50s or younger, and do not have comormid conditions. He speaks about the distress of people not being able to have visitors, and of having to think about how family members can be with their loved ones as those people die. He talks about the mechanism of death, which includes respiratory failure, multi-organ failure, but he says the main cause is myocarditis. He speaks about his experience of having and recovering from covid-19. It's a great interview and well worth watching. The UK went into covid-19 with fewer doctors, nurses, beds, ICU beds, per 100,000 population than most other EU countries.

wsc981 7y ago

In The Netherlands around 90% of ICU patients are obese [0]. --- [0]: https://northerntimes.nl/umcg-investigates-possible-link-between-weight-and-covid-19-illness/ https://northerntimes.nl/umcg-investigates-possible-link-bet...

klingonopera 7y ago

> "All our ICU patients are in their 50s or younger" I was expecting a Triage-scenario to be the cause of this, but since they're not just yet at capacity, that can't be the case either. How is this anomaly to be explained? EDIT: Apparently, they are over-capacity, I was left under the impression, they hadn't turned anyone away from ICU... nevertheless, I still don't understand how that anomaly is possible... it's statistically very unlikely: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8181359/Doctor-returns-work-recovering-coronavirus-capacity-intensive-care-unit.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8181359/Doctor-retu...

op03 7y ago
13 patients is not a big anomaly. Check the historic number for respiratory related illnesses and deaths for the region and you will have context. Could be a lot of smokers .
- klingonopera 7y ago
  Yeah, but for a virus that even more heavily affects older people, it's super unlikely you'd get 13 under-60s and not a single over-60. It's like flipping a coin and getting 13 times heads, possible, but super unlikely. And we're not even talking about odds of 50:50, but 33:67 for young/old. So, he got 13 times heads in a row? If yes, he's probably at the only hospital in the world to have that kind of a luck. EDIT: The odds for 13 times heads in a row, is about 0.01%. So, one in 10,000 hospitals... hm, ok, that does seem likely to occur more than once on a global scale.
  - op03 7y ago
    Agree we wouldn't be hearing about it if it wasn't odd. Just saying subtract out what conditions/ages in normal times occupy those beds and the odds will change. But I am too lazy to do it - https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/Births-Deaths-and-Conceptions/Deaths/Deaths-by-Cause https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Car... https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

foolzcrow 7y ago

Scare tactics 101