Shortage Of Hospital Ventilators for Bird Flu Victims
When a person catches the flu, the infection can affect the
lungs and cause difficulty breathing. In serious cases, people
need a breathing machine, or ventilator, to help them stay alive.
But if there was a worldwide outbreak of the bird
flu among humans, the number of people who need a ventilator
could far exceed supply.
A "medium-level" flu pandemic
would likely cause between 89,000 to 207,000 deaths and about
314,000 to 734,000 people
to be hospitalized in the United States, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. A large percentage of these
hospitalized patients could be critically ill and require a ventilator.
With that in mind, doctors throughout the country are debating
how to parse out a limited supply of ventilators in the event
of an outbreak.
Dr. John Hick, an emergency physician at Hennepin County Medical
Center in Minneapolis, has been working on a plan where the limited
number of ventilators would be used for healthier patients, while
the sickest patients would not receive them unless one became
available.
His plan attempts to do the "greatest good for the greatest
number" because the healthier patients would be more likely
to benefit from ventilation and ultimately have a better outcome,
he said. His proposal was published in the February issue of
the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.
"In a disaster where we are were short on resources, and
are not going to be able to receive resources from other sources
to fill the needs, we would have to prioritize patients that
have a better chance of survival," he said. "For example,
deciding to take a very sick patient with multiple organs failing
off the ventilator in order to give it to a patient with a better
chance of recovery."
By DR. JOEL SCHOFER
Bird Flu Index / Q&A /
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