So I haven’t been very good at collecting hard data lately at work. I still don’t even know exactly how many China virus patients we have lately, but if I were to guess I would still say around the 15 area. There have been maybe 2 or 3 people in the mix lately that are vaccinated and are admitted to the hospital for other health problems and happen to test positive and are asymptomatic. We have one positive vented patient currently who did receive the J&J vaccine. Honestly, he looks like he already died a few years ago before any of this. Since being on a ventilator he has also had a stroke and is unresponsive without sedation. His days are very numbered..
Meanwhile, we have an unvaccinated patient also in the ICU who had been on the brink of going on a ventilator for the past 3-4 days. He had been on 75-85% oxygen for about a week and making no headway. The pulmonologists have offered him the choice of being placed on a ventilator before things potentially get even worse. The patient and his family are afraid that once he goes on the ventilator, he will never come off alive.
Anyway, yesterday was the first time I had him recently and he started talking to me about how difficult the decision still is for him about potentially going on a ventilator. I could tell he felt very overwhelmed and confused about what is in his best interest. I’m not supposed to give medical advice in this sense, but I told him my honest opinion was that he should stay on the track he was on and avoid being placed on the ventilator. We have had way too many people die once on ventilators lately (I didn’t tell him that).
It‘s not very often I find myself in a position to offer my personal opinion one on one with a patient in regard to a huge choice in a life or death situation. I think he appreciated my honest opinion based on what I have seen from patients recently who were just like him. I was subsequently able to get his oxygen down to 65%