Top Stories: Covid 19 Stats Johannesburg in September 10, 2024
Doctors are forced to pick who to save when Covid-19 batters them.
Hospitals in Gauteng are so overburdened with the third wave of Covid-19 that medical professionals are now effectively choosing who to save.
Medical staff in Gauteng have detailed the agony of having to choose who survives or dies because to a lack of beds and oxygen in the province, which is currently the epicenter of the pandemic in the country.
A doctor at a private hospital who requested anonymity told GoodBear that the facility had to go on daily detour for the past three weeks, turning people away due to a lack of ICU beds.
To highlight the magnitude of the third wave of infections, the doctor stated that before the epidemic, one to three individuals each month would die in ICU.
Covid-19 claimed the lives of seven persons on Tuesday night.
“There just aren’t enough resources to care for everyone,” he added, referring to the hospital’s overcrowding.
“People are queuing outside, while ambulances are waiting to discharge the ill at hospitals.”
He said that the situation had deteriorated to the point that physicians had to select which patients could be rescued and which could not.
“We are attempting to assist survivors rather than every ill individual since we are unable to assist everyone.”
The doctor pleaded for people to stay at home, saying:
No Covid-19 Beds Available in Gauteng
The comments made by doctors concerning hospital waiting times and bed availability were corroborated by a Gauteng paramedic who did not want to be identified.
“We frequently sit in the ambulance with the patient for four to five hours until a bed at the hospital becomes available,” he added.
He went on to say that hospitals had also redirected ambulances due to a lack of capacity to transport patients.
The paramedic added that compared to the first and second waves of infections, they were getting a lot more calls for Covid-19 patients right now.
We hadn’t been this busy in the previous two rounds, we’re working on a lot of Covid-19 instances right now.”
Patients in the first two rounds were also significantly more stable, according to him.
The people they were bringing up today, he claimed, were more sicker and had lower oxygen levels.
Bayanda Gumede, the head nephrology technologist at a renal clinic west of Johannesburg, verified this, adding that facilities lacked oxygen.
“Patients arrive at the hospital and soon decline, we are losing individuals as a result of a lack of resources.
There aren’t enough beds, ventilators, or oxygen.
Patients that are brought to hospitals quickly decline, which we did not witness in the prior two rounds.
I work closely with hospitals, and they expect that I will be able to recommend them, but the system is now overburdened.
We waited for an ambulance for four hours the other day, and when the paramedics came, they stated hospitals were full and patients were being diverted.
“We must now decide who to assist, We attempt to assist individuals who are struggling to breathe.
When patients arrive at hospitals, they are not even admitted to high-level care.
That’s how awful things have become.”
He expressed concern about the large number of persons who showed there ill.
“We assumed that the second wave had infected a large number of people and that communal immunity had developed.
We were mistaken, the number of persons who are unwell is alarming.”
The third wave, according to a Gauteng ICU nurse, was unlike anything she had ever seen before.
“This wave is even worse than the first and second.
We’re seeing younger people die who have no underlying medical problems – and many of them are physically healthy.
“This wave feels worse than the first and second waves, I have a feeling you won’t make it if you’re put on a ventilator now.
You won’t be walking out of the hospital if you’re on a ventilator right now.
“We’re all nervous and concerned, We have no idea where we’re heading or when it’ll all come to an end.
We aim to assist as many individuals as possible “she stated
A nurse and spokesman for the Young Nurses Indaba, Rich Sicina, said: “Nurses are exhausted and overworked.
The system is about to implode.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the government has done little to enhance healthcare.
They’ll tell you about the extra nurses they brought on board.
However, those nurses made little difference because we were already short-staffed.
Even before the epidemic, we needed them.”
President Ramaphosa to address the National tonight.
