A doctor about the silent victims of the epidemic. “Patients’ condition is deteriorating due to the mess in the health service” [LETTER TO MEDTvoiLokony]

Almost 19 have died in Poland due to COVID-15. people. More and more is said about the “hidden victims of the pandemic” – people who died because they did not receive medical care on time or because they had limited access to doctors. In a letter to MedTvoiLokona, the orthopedic surgeon drew attention to another group of patients – those who, due to staff shortages in hospitals and the prevailing chaos, do not receive adequate treatment on time and their health is deteriorating. For many of them, this means serious problems for the rest of their lives. “The 35-year-old may be crippled because we had to cancel the operation”, the letter reads.

1. The doctor describes the case of a young man waiting for hip surgery. It turned out he was infected with SARS-CoV-2. The surgery was canceled, and when he recovered, it could no longer be performed
2. «At best, he will have limited range of motion and chronic pains in the injured person. Post-traumatic degenerative changes will form in the pond, making the young man a cripple »- wrote the doctor in his letter
3. The medic draws attention to the neglected group of patients who, due to the chaos in health care, will not receive adequate care on time
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

Doctor: We will never know the number of silent victims of an epidemic

We publish the letter in full below:

«I am an orthopedic doctor. I work in a district hospital.

I would like to describe the case of one of my patients. There is a lot of talk / writing about deaths or other immediate consequences of COVID-19, meanwhile there is also a huge group of patients whose health has deteriorated due to the current mess in the healthcare system or staff shortages in hospitals.

1. The editorial office recommends: 16 thousand deaths in a week. The mortality rate has not been so high for years

A 35-year-old patient was brought to our hospital after a traffic accident. He suffered a complicated hip fracture. It was an injury requiring surgery – without it, the leg will never be functional.

Soon after being admitted to the ward, the patient began to report abdominal pain. After a surgical consultation, he was transferred to the surgical ward, where he underwent an abdominal (laparotomy) operation. After a period of surgical treatment, which lasted over two weeks, the patient was planned to be transferred back to our orthopedic department for hip surgery. Necessary implants were ordered. The patient was supposed to visit us on Monday, the operation was planned for Tuesday.

Before transferring the patient, we asked him to test for SARS-COV-2, which turned out to be positive. On the same day, the patient was transferred from our relatively small poviat hospital to a large voivodeship clinical hospital now renamed to the same name. The sick man stayed there for a month. He came back to us after the symptoms of the infection had resolved, but the hip surgery was not performed. Seven weeks after the fracture, in agreement and after consultation with the best specialists in the country, we withdrew from surgery. After this period, the chances of setting the (already healed) fracture were minimal, and the extent and risk of potential surgery was significant.

The patient was discharged home. Let me remind you: he is 35 years old. At best, he will have limited range of motion and chronic pain from an injured hip joint. More likely, in the next few years, post-traumatic degenerative changes will develop in the injured joint, making the young person a cripple.

There are many similar examples. Currently, there is a young woman in our ward with a complicated fracture of the femur. Surgery is pending, however Currently, almost all surgical procedures (except for the most urgent ones, in patients with life-threatening ones) have been suspended in our hospital due to significant shortages in the staff of the anesthesiology team. The surgery is likely to take place at the end of the week. Probably…

You can list this way for a long time: patients who have undergone surgical treatment requiring its continuation at a specific time, patients with inflammations of the musculoskeletal system, patients with sometimes very intense pain awaiting their planned surgery for years, which has now been canceled without indicating the next date of its performance.

I suspect that the situation is similar in other specializations. We will probably never know the number of so-called silent victims of the epidemic. “

This may interest you:

1. They have symptoms but are not going for a test. «Why do I need a circus with quarantine and police?»
2. Infectious: in the number of tests performed, we can compare ourselves to Mexico, not Europe
3. Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from? A surprising discovery in laboratory freezers

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