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The crown numbers in Switzerland are continually increasing. Hospitals are filling up and intensive care staff is already on edge. In the coming days and weeks, the numbers should continue to rise. It is not an easy situation: the Italian newspaper “La Stampa” now paints a gloomy picture.
Because in Switzerland the numbers are increasing much faster than in neighboring countries, similar to the beginning in Italy. Then the newspaper compares the situation in Switzerland with the crisis region of Bergamo these days.
Switzerland threatens to be “swept away by the pandemic”. “The decisions that Swiss doctors will soon have to make are the same as those made by doctors in Bergamo in March, who were overwhelmed by the first wave of the pandemic.” That would mean war. In other words, doctors decide who will treat patients first and if there are not enough places. In general, patients with the highest probability of survival are ventilated.
Patients older than 85 years would no longer receive treatment
According to the newspaper, a document from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and the Swiss Society of Intensive Care Medicine from mid-March shows how hospitals should act in case the situation worsens. These are guidelines for “triage of intensive care treatments in case of resource shortages”. It says that the age of the patient should not influence the treatment of the coronavirus.
However, older people would no longer be admitted if beds were missing. According to the report, the line is drawn here at age 85. Even patients over the age of 75 would no longer be accepted at this resource-poor stage if they suffer from cirrhosis of the liver, chronic kidney failure, or heart failure, as “20 Minuten” writes. At the beginning of the pandemic, Italy was dependent on help from abroad: some patients were flown to Germany for treatment.
Franco Denti, president of the Ticino Medical Association, hopes that Swiss doctors will not have to make such decisions: “The decision of who to resuscitate and who not to resuscitate is difficult, very difficult for all doctors”, quotes “La Stampa” . .
