We know that, the purpose of the lockdown is to allow the nhs to cope. To give them a sporting chance to save as many as possible. To stop people having PTSD because the had to choose who to give the last ventilator to. To stop them having to turn off an elderly patient to try to save a 40yr old who then dies anyway. Can you imagine having to do that? f**k taxes this is real life
That is of all cases, by the time you look at the statistics of those in ICU this isn't "most" it is the sickest of all that have had it.
1. Why is it that every photo of a hospital features the plod or soldier boys?Why was Boris Johnson taken to intensive care?
Tuesday April 07 2020, 12.01am, The Times
Covid-19 is a respiratory disease: when things go badly downhill it is usually a result of problems breathing.
Boris Johnson is understood to have been transferred to intensive care in case he needs ventilation, a sign that the prime minister may be struggling to get enough oxygen into his blood.
Initially what is likely to change is more intensive monitoring and oxygen therapy, said Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.
Boris Johnson is being treated at St Thomas’ which has a programme to revolutionise cardiovascular and respiratory services for patients
“At his stage moving on to intensive care units is about keeping them under continuous monitoring and any other help they need in terms of oxygen and a little bit of help to make breathing easier,” she told The Times.
On a standard ward oxygen therapy is given through a mask but if Mr Johnson was not responding to that treatment in ICU it can be given through a more intensive technique known as continuous positive airway pressure. “You wouldn’t administer it unless you were able to continuously monitor a patient,” Dr Pittard said.
“On the wards you just don’t have the staff to do that.”
She said the one-on-one monitoring possible in intensive care was another reason for such transfers. “With someone in his position I assume they would be even more cautious. They will be concerned enough that they want continuous monitoring so that if he deteriorates someone sees it immediately.”
Intravenous fluid and nutrition could also be given if breathing makes him dehydrated. However, inotropic drugs to force the heart to contract more powerfully and ensure blood gets to vital organs are usually only given to patients on ventilators.
While coronavirus is a mild disease for most patients, about 5 to 10 per cent of those infected need hospital treatment, with a recent study from Imperial College London putting the figure at 8.2 per cent of those, like the prime minister, in their 50s.
About a third of those in hospital need intensive care, where they are put under intensive monitoring from nurses and specialist equipment looking at markers heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The next stage would be use of a ventilator to push air into the lungs if he struggles to breathe on his own.
Mark Porter, The Times doctor, said: “The main reason people with Covid-19 are transferred to intensive care is because they need some form of respiratory support as they struggle to maintain oxygenation on their own.”
Dr Porter warned there was also a risk of bacterial pneumonia, and although easier to treat [for example through intravenous antibiotics], it can still be life threatening.
Prime minister is treated by the best respiratory team in Britain
At 10 Downing Street, Boris Johnson lives across the river from one of the best respiratory hospitals in Britain.
Since November 2017, St Thomas’ has been involved in a programme to revolutionise cardiovascular and respiratory services for patients.
A team of consultants is attached to the intensive care unit of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS trust. Among them is Luigi Camporota, whose areas of expertise includes respiratory failure and advanced mechanical ventilation. On Thursday last week he joined a seminar in which he spoke of how to best ventilate Covid-19 patients.
“I am going to share with you a model of ventilation that reflects phases of these disease,” he said, adding that the UK was “rapidly catching up with the rest of Europe in terms of cases”.
Dr Camporota, who has a PhD in airway and lung biology, presented a graph showing the 129 patients across the Guy’s and St Thomas’ trust which showed that the number of patients requiring ventilation was increasing. The average age of patients at the hospital was 57 he said. Mr Johnson is 55.
As the prime minister’s condition worsened it is likely he was moved from the Howard Ward, a private unit on the top floor, to an intensive care unit in the east wing of the hospital.
In response to the pandemic the hospital has assigned a Covid-19 team made up of 20 respiratory, palliative care and rheumatology consultants and six specialist respiratory nurses.
Duncan Wyncoll, consultant in critical care on the unit, is responsible for treating those patients with severe respiratory failure using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The treatment involves prolonged cardiac and respiratory support for people whose heart and lungs are unable to sustain life.
Cos a picture of a grey hospital would be......boring.
no I haven't and I notice that you haven't quoted where I have said this, because I haven't said it and you just made it up
can you quote someone, just one person on here that said long term lockdown is the answer?
Quite, according to Doctor Guth nobody has ever died of CV so what's the worry
As are endless images of cops enforcing despotic diktats.Cos a picture of a grey hospital would be......boring.
puts yourself in the governments position and you will see why they cannot lift the lock down now until a vaccine is ready, as soon as they do and a spike in cases happens the NHS will be quickly overwhelmed and many citizens and their loved ones will die, not a nice call to make they will be seen as murderers so the lockdown WILL continue
Where as yourself, was all over the media and standing up in parliament day after day, back in january, urging the government to get with your programme.
