Because no beds ... COVID

quote:

"I've never lost a patient from this diagnosis, ever," Kakli said. "We know what needs to be done and we know how to treat it, and we get them to where they need to go. I'm scared that the next patient that I see is someone that I can't get to where they need to get to go.

This is an anecdote, of course. It'll take a fair bit of statistical legerdemain to figure out the increase in mortality from non-COVID illnesses due to overcrowding, but this is a perfect "story" for how and why it is likely happening around us. And happening largely invisibly ... under the radar screen.

quote:

this is a perfect "story" for how and why it is likely happening around us

And also all the more reason for people to vax up and mask up

Here is another one ...

... She isn't dead yet, thankfully.

quote:

The people who arrogantly claim that their choices not to be vaccinated and take precautions against covid-19 have no effect on anyone else need to know that isn’t true.

Yep. This right here.

In one of the FB groups I'm in for my region, someone posted that her son was in an accident and the ambulance kept getting sent to different hospitals before it found one that would admit him. He's in hospital and getting care now, but she said that took about three hours. For others, that wait could be long enough to make the difference between life and death.

I am outraged over the whole thing, but trying to think positive and useful:

I'm sure a couple of kids could put together a web site using google maps that would show every hospital in the country and someone from that hospital would enter the number of total ICU beds they have and how many are occupied -- and update that data once an hour, or as soon as a bed became occupied or empty. Then anyone could search for beds within an x-mile radius, and when a bed is found, reserve it with an estimate of when the patient would arrive there. Incoming patients could be identified as non-COVID, COVID-vaccinated, and COVID-not-vaccinated if someone wanted to establish a moral priority system.

It would sure beat the heck out of having a doctor spend two hours on the phone calling every hospital looking for a bed.


If google maps can find me a bowl of vegan gluten-free Thai curry within five miles of my current location, surely it can find an ICU bed within a five-state area.

Sadly, since the U.S. does not have the "we're all this together" mindset, it's not gonna happen.