Remember the ObamaCare Death Panels?

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,257
3,832
136
Me neither.

But the Trump Death Panels are here.


Texas county, overwhelmed by COVID-19, will deny treatment to those deemed unlikely to survive

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The coronavirus situation in Texas has deteriorated to the point where one county’s health authority has implemented a triage committee for the purpose of determining which COVID-19 patients the county’s single hospital will treat, and which patients will be sent home to die, according to the McAllen, Texas, affiliate WSYR.

In a stunning admission of how dire the COVID-19 situation is in South Texas, the health authority for one border county on Tuesday announced the formation of an ethics committee that will screen all patients for survival potential and will send home those with low probabilities.
Starr County Health Authority Dr. Jose Vazquez said Starr County Memorial Hospital, the county’s only hospital, on Tuesday implemented an ethics committee and a triage committee to review all coronavirus patients as they come in to determine what type of life-saving equipment and treatment they would likely require and whether they would likely survive. Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.
As noted in the WSYR report, rural Starr county, located south of San Antonio, has only one hospital to serve 70,000 residents. Shortly after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott implemented statewide reopenings on May 1, that hospital became inundated with COVID-19 patients.


A county judge interviewed for the WSYR article attributes the spike in those infected to residents failing to adhere to social distancing practices, including “continuing to gather in groups for weddings, quinceañeras, and pachanga parties where he said communal spread of the novel virus is being propagated.”
According to the Health Authority, the county simply has no other choice but to implement this policy as neighboring county hospitals have no more intensive care unit (ICU) space to spare.
As explained by Dr. Vazquez, “We do not have specialty services, we are just […] a rural health hospital.” The institution of these real-life “death panels” is being implemented as a last resort.
The committees will consist of a patient’s primary care physician, the emergency room doctor or the hospital doctor taking care of the patient, a social worker, and one of the hospital administrators.
“That team will be responsible to talk with patients and family, especially in the cases where we are dealing with elderly patients with multiple comorbidities” and have moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms, Vazquez said.
“Science tells us that those patients do not do well,” he said. “That most of those patients will never make it out of a ventilator.”
As a practical matter, even if patients recover from the acute phase of infection, if they were to be discharged to home thereafter, they would still require oxygen, which the hospital is unable to provide. The consensus also appears to be that most patients unlikely to recover, who would for the most part be receiving hospice or palliative care until death, would prefer to die at home rather than at some facility 1,000 miles away.
“We are not gods or anybody to make a decision for who should live or who should die. However, when you have a mass-casualty situation there are guidelines that makes you work in a more efficient manner and to help save the maximum number of people,” said Vazquez, who added in his entire career as a physician he has never experienced such a desperate mass medical situation.
The Starr County Memorial Hospital has eight beds in its COVID-19 unit, but it now has 28 COVID-19 patients, including three on ventilators or other life support, according to WSYR.
 
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trenchfoot

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
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This is where Trump should send his shock troops. They'd be so much more helpful assisting those health care professionals in any way they can. Call in the anti-masker Trump supporters too so they can be useful and see if they decide to refuse wearing masks in order to, you know, exercise their rights and all.
 

MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
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This is where Trump should send his shock troops. They'd be so much more helpful assisting those health care professionals in any way they can. Call in the anti-masker Trump supporters too so they can be useful and see if they decide to refuse wearing masks in order to, you know, exercise their rights and all.
This is the hospital Trump should visit instead of his mask photo op at Walter Reed.
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
28,678
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With the contempt banana repugs have towards science, it was only a matter of time really. Sad, horrible stuff.

What number are we on? What's the tally now on things that Obama was going to do, yet the GOP has gone and actually done? I've lost count.

He won't even address this, watch. Too busy trying to start shit in blue cities to rile his self-righteous base into showing up in November, they can't resist culture war productions.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,681
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More of the same is inevitable all across the South. It's only right that they should do this, unfortunately, and horribly wrong that they face the necessity. It didn't have to be this way. The pandemic is like a chess match. Make the wrong move & you're doomed in the end. We've made plenty.
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
7,138
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I mean, not to be that guy, but 8 beds and 28 patients for a county with 70k people?

Article is a bit alarmist no?

Sounds like a shitty hospital (de rigour in the US) that's unable to handle a relatively low caseload.

I mean, what the actual fuck all around.
 

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,257
3,832
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I mean, not to be that guy, but 8 beds and 28 patients for a county with 70k people?

Article is a bit alarmist no?

Sounds like a shitty hospital (de rigour in the US) that's unable to handle a relatively low caseload.

I mean, what the actual fuck all around.

20 years ago, when I drove out from California to move to Pennsylvania, I drove through a town somewhere in Nebraska, and the sign said. "Population: 42".

How many hospital beds you think they have?
 

FaaR

Golden Member
Dec 28, 2007
1,056
412
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This is where Trump should send his shock troops.
If he sent his troops to prevent these social gatherings which are spreading the disease, they might actually do some real, positive good.

...But of course, that wouldn't bring him enough headlines. In the world of news, things aren't really news unless they're bad news, so therefore rioting >>> saving lives... It's a mark on this society of ours we've built, and also on humanity itself.