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In the front line of the fight against the coronavirus, the general surgeon and director of the Rio Union of Doctors, Pedro Archer, says that the public health system has collapsed. According to him, who works in an emergency in western Rio, there are not respirators for all patients, forcing the medical team to choose, daily, who lives to save. Only in his most recent duty were two deaths.
“The health system has collapsed. There are no more vacancies to transfer in the capital, nor respirators for everyone. People with crown symptoms, who are already in serious condition, need a respirator, and there is no equipment for everyone. that there is no team for everyone. So, we have to make decisions, there is no way. We have already reached this point, “he informed the Twitter.
Between a person with many comorbidities and a young person, you end up choosing the young patient. Or the one who is more likely to survive. It is not something we learn in college, but we must be rational.
Excited, Archer recalled last week’s shift that began with the death of a patient from lack of respirator. Citing the code of medical ethics, he asked that the name of the health unit where he works not be disclosed in the report.
“We already started with the arrival of a patient in a very serious condition. He did not have a respirator, all the machines were busy. So we turned to the ambulance respirator, but the device did not work. The patient did not resist and died.”
“We try everything: we try to oxygenate with a nasal catheter, deflate the lungs. But there are cases that only the ventilator will work, there is no way. I never imagined experiencing something like this, it is a very fast disease,” he adds.
On the daily choices of which lives to save, Pedro Archer says that the effort is to be rational.
We try not to get too excited. But if for every three critically ill patients there are only two ventilators, we have to choose. The emergency coordinator tries to do everything, looks for respirators in other units, gives blood and sweat, but not everything is within reach
Archer also denounces the lack of personal protective equipment for the medical team and says that the professionals themselves have been buying material.
“The correct thing would be to change the equipment after each service, but there are not enough. So those who cannot buy do not change,” he says. “I pray every day for this to end, but I think it will take a while. Brazil has started to have more serious cases now, and if the isolation ends too soon, we will be calm, but then a big storm.”
What the city of Rio says
Requested by the report, the Municipal Health Department denies that there is a lack of patient respirators and personal protective equipment for health professionals. According to the folder, the emergency unit in the West Zone has 16 respirators.
In addition, according to the secretariat, “the use of each PPE [equipamento de proteção individual] also follows Anvisa’s protocols [Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária] and the ministry, including regarding deadlines for the removal and replacement of non-permanent items. “
The state of Rio recorded, until yesterday, 6,172 confirmed cases and 530 deaths from coronavirus. There are still 206 deaths under investigation. The capital adds 322 deaths from covid-19.
