Saw this on Facebook and it really does set up a grim scenario if we don't work to flatten the curve:
Just a word to those throwing social distancing to the wind.. hopping on flights to Miami, “living life because I’m going to die of something anyway”, literally packing the beaches in Florida. I know people have tried to appeal to your senses to say “think about the others you can spread the virus to who will become really ill”.. and you ignore those warnings too. Because you think all of this is blown out of proportion.
Let me give you this warning.. I hope for your sake no one, and I mean no one.. you love or care about, needs any medical attention for any reason for the next 4-5 months.
Our hospitals and the healthcare system are on the very brink of becoming overwhelmed. We haven’t even reached the peak of cases yet and already ICU beds are full. We have 160,000 ventilators for our ENTIRE country. (ventilators are machines we use to deliver oxygen to people, they aren’t just for the critically ill, but are used in emergency and elective surgeries, and are essential for critical care in emergency departments and ICUs). Most of the year almost all are in use, especially during a bad flu season.
Even if you don’t have living parents or relatives who are in the high risk group and may become critical ill, if anyone you know becomes ill for ANY REASON, there will be no where to turn to.
Just know if your 6 year old child develops a fever and terrible belly pain and may have appendicitis, they will die at home in your arms, because no hospital will have capacity to care for them, let alone perform emergency surgery. If your sister is in a terrible car accident, and is bleeding internally and needs immediate surgery, she will die waiting on a stretcher, outside of the hospital, because the operating rooms are makeshift ICUs and are already full of coronavirus patients. I hope your favorite baby cousin with bad asthma doesn’t have an attack that requires an ER visit for treatment, because she will end up losing her ability to breathe, waiting for medical attention, from an already overwhelmed ER staff that doesn’t have a ventilator or the needed supplies to help get oxygen to her lungs, and her heart will surely stop. Hopefully your mom doesn’t trip getting out of the tub and slams her head into the sink and passes out, because she likely has an intracranial hemorrhage and would need immediate life saving surgery, however she would likely succumb to her injuries before EMS even arrives because 911 will be so overburdened with the Coronavirus response. God forbid you yourself trip and fall and break your leg, I hope you know how to construct makeshift crutches and a splint/cast, YouTube might have some videos... I don’t know.
I say all of this to highlight that it doesn’t have to be this way, if we
#flattenthecurve but if we don’t, people will die, and not just coronavirus infected elderly patients that you seem not to care about, but everyday real life emergencies that I take care of in the emergency room, will be left to their own devices without medical care with a completely overwhelmed medical system.
I hope your spring break was worth it, and I pray your family and friends make it through this pandemic the way I pray we all pull through.
From your not-so-friendly Emergency Medicine Doc...
#flattenthecurve
#socialdistancing #workingdoubletime #ERdoc #DCCOVIDresponse
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