Some U.S. hospitals weigh withholding care to Ebola patients

originally posted by: Iamthatbish
a reply to: grandmakdw

Everything you say makes perfect sense. Until you recall that Ebola mirrors so many other ailments. That's my concern.

I wouldn't hire a person for a job if they didn't understand the job. We don't allow out garbage men to leave trash because its gross. People in the medical community need to understand what they were educated and hired to do. If they don't like it, they shouldn't just quit. They should change careers.

If you look at the nursing thread I referenced earlier , that is exactly what a lot of nurses are considering, quitting nursing altogether if Ebola becomes epidemic in the US.

Sat but true, they were educated and hired to treat patients, but not from their point of view to commit possible suicide or murder of their own family members.

I don't think we disagree overall, just I can see where the nurses and docs are coming from with their fears, no matter what we think of them or of their fears.

Article in the WSJ this morning...

Hospitals Wrestle With Extent of Ebola Treatment

Some facilities have decided they will forgo cardiopulmonary resuscitation or may opt not to pursue invasive surgical procedures on deteriorating Ebola patients. Such procedures can expose health workers to bodily fluids that transmit the disease, and hospitals say in many cases have little chance of saving a patient.

The decisions are sparking a thorny debate at hospitals across the country and calls for national guidelines. Facilities are turning to medical ethicists to decide if and when it is appropriate to withhold treatmen

You know what this means, right?

these hospitals are on the correct path of thinking. unless they are designed, built and properly equipped to handle something as dangerous as this, they should not put everyone else there at risk. hospitals are becoming too well known as a place to get sick as it is. what they need to do is start building purpose built facilities to handle things like this. designed and built from the ground up with containment in mind as it's primary function. at that point you only have specially trained personnel ready to go to work there and live there (under quarantine themselves) when the need arises. these facilities should of course be located away from areas of high population density, out in the country away from city centers. isolated islands would be perfect. i hear North Brother Island (where Typhoid Mary was held) is vacant which just like in days gone by makes a perfect spot for an isolation facility.

originally posted by: generik
these hospitals are on the correct path of thinking. unless they are designed, built and properly equipped to handle something as dangerous as this, they should not put everyone else there at risk. hospitals are becoming too well known as a place to get sick as it is. what they need to do is start building purpose built facilities to handle things like this. designed and built from the ground up with containment in mind as it's primary function. at that point you only have specially trained personnel ready to go to work there and live there (under quarantine themselves) when the need arises. these facilities should of course be located away from areas of high population density, out in the country away from city centers. isolated islands would be perfect. i hear North Brother Island (where Typhoid Mary was held) is vacant which just like in days gone by makes a perfect spot for an isolation facility.

Here's some great pics of how they coped with the Spanish Flu by building huge sanitariums. It was a serious problem back then, which called for serious responses. (after 3:00, it gets a bit repetitive though)...