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Resuscitation denied to elderly suffering the most serious course of coronavirus, which requires intensive therapy. A more than questionable procedure but that is part of a precise protocol and established for more than 6 months in Swiss hospitals.
The latter provide, in fact, in cases of overpopulation intensive care: not welcoming older people affected by the coronavirus to the intensive care unit.
And even if the comparison with similar obligations remains rare, it is inevitable to anticipate a decisive increase in cases that will lead to Swiss doctors deny resuscitation to elderly patients.
It should be remembered that in Switzerland the 7-8 thousand new cases per day, in a situation that for the moment seems less chaotic than in Italy but that continues to put pressure on the hospitals in the area.
Coronavirus, denial of resuscitation to elderly people in Switzerland
With 6,592 new cases and 10 deaths Switzerland continues, like much of the European scene, registering strong positive growth.
Figures lower than the Italian but very worrying, especially if we analyze a patient-population relationship that must be compared with a much smaller population in Swiss territory.
So since the last March 20 -or since the first most massive appearance of the virus in the country- the health protocol established in the face of the pandemic explicitly denies intensive care to the elderly affected by coronavirus.
All this is indicated in a document prepared bySwiss Academy of Medical Sciences and the Swiss Society of Intensive Care Medicine, which lists all types of patients for whom cardiopulmonary resuscitation cannot be guaranteed in cases of shortage of available beds.
Specifically, the ages indicated are over 85 or over 75 but with the presence of contemporary conditions: “Cirrhosis of the liver, stage III chronic kidney failure, NYHA class heart failure greater than 1, and estimated survival less than 24 months”.
A measure that, therefore, aims to end overcrowding, but that the president of the Order of Doctors of the Canton of Ticino, Franco Denti, did not hesitate to define one “Very heavy choice”:
“When this directive came out, we sat in the chair. Deciding who to resuscitate and who is not heavy, too heavy for any doctor ”.
