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Infection with the new coronavirus, or Covid-19, is on the rise worldwide. This deadly infectious disease is taking thousands of lives every day. The role of ventilators is huge for patients with coronary heart disease.
The ventilator artificially supplies oxygen to the lungs and releases carbon dioxide. That is, the ventilator allows the patient to breathe artificially when he cannot breathe alone.
But giving this respirator does not mean it will save all patients’ lives, and that is why it is up to the doctors to decide: when they think the patient is no longer alive and the respirator treatment should be discontinued.
Juanita Nitla, chief nurse of the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London, described the experience of turning off the ventilator of a seriously ill patient.
Born in South India, Nittala has been working for the National Health Service (NHS) in England for 18 years. She is a nurse specially trained in intensive care. The 42-year-old nurse said it was her job to turn off the ventilation. He said turning off the fan was a time of great stress and anguish. Sometimes I feel like I am responsible for that person’s death.
One morning in the second week of April, when Nitla joined her shift, a doctor from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) told her to stop treating a patient with Kavid-19. The patient was a community nurse by profession. Age around 50. Nitla told her daughter about the whole process. “I assured him that his mother had no problem,” he said. He is very calm. I asked him if he had any last wishes and if he wanted something religious.
The beds in the ICU are next to each other. All the patients he cares for around Nittala are unconscious. He said that all the patients were seriously ill. I surrounded the patient with a curtain. I turned off all the alarms.
All medical personnel stopped working for a few moments. The nurses stopped talking. Respecting and comforting the patient is our priority, “said Nittala. Nittala picked up the phone in the patient’s ear and told her daughter to” speak. “She said it was just a phone call for me. She wanted to make a video call, but unfortunately not The use of mobile phones is allowed within the ICU.
At the wishes of the patient’s family, Nittala played a certain music video from the computer. Then he went and turned off the fan switch. “I sat next to him, holding his hand until my breath came out,” he said. The patient died five minutes after turning off the ventilator. I saw the red light on the monitor and a mechanical signal to stop the heartbeat on the monitor screen.
Only doctors decide to stop all breathing equipment and treatment and they do it very carefully considering all aspects, such as the patient’s age, if he has other ailments, how he responds to treatment, the chances of recovery. How much, analyze all aspects.
Nittala opened the medicine they were giving him to keep him asleep. Since the patient’s daughter did not know what was happening, she kept talking to her mother. I was listening to some sentences on the phone. Nitla had a hard time telling him, but she still took the phone in her hand and told her that her mother was dead. As a nurse, your responsibilities do not end with the death of a patient. “With the help of a colleague, I cleaned him up, wrapped him in white cloth, put his body in a body bag, and before closing the bag, I painted a cross on the patient’s forehead in a religious way,” he said.
Prior to this coronavirus outbreak, doctors spoke to family members before stopping a patient’s treatment. Close family members were allowed to enter the ICU before the artificial respiration device was turned off. It has now been closed in many countries around the world for fear of becoming infected with the coronavirus. It is very sad to die alone like this, Nitla said. He says he is trying to overcome emotional pain by being able to help those who are on their way to death. You have seen patients who cannot breathe, who are holding their breath, it is very difficult to see with the eyes.
(Dhaka Times / April 17 / DM)
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