The number of deaths after the pandemic terrifies doctors. «Whoever survived, survived. And whoever was weaker died »

– The number of “excess” deaths in Poland is terrifying. In large, well-equipped hospitals, there were fewer of them, but in those poviat ones a strong patient survived and a weaker one died – says doctor Marcin Murmyło, a specialist in lung diseases.

1. Prof. Jacek Jassem, oncologist: Telepaths in the diagnosis of neoplasms do not work. Many patients did not have a chance to recover
2. – In the hospital where I work, today I deal with neglected patients: with increased circulatory failure and advanced neoplastic process – says Beata Poprawa, MD, Ph.D.
3. Marcin Murmyło assesses: People were afraid to leave the house and go to the hospital, because people spread the rumor that it is the easiest place to get infected there. There was mainly a lack of epidemiological planning
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

2020 with a record number of deaths

Last year, we Poles died by 67 thousand. more than in 2019

“There was a pandemic and it still continues”, the first thought comes to mind. Of course. But the coronavirus also killed people who did not get COVID-19, but from breast cancer, lung cancer or heart attacks. Over 2 people also died from mental disorders, many people committed suicide.

The Ministry of Health in its «Report on deaths» calls it «excess deaths».

Cancer will not wait for the epidemic to end

Where did this “surplus” come from?

– Certainly, in 2020 many people have taken the slogan “stay home” too literally to heart, although we tried to explain that this does not apply to people who have any suspicious symptoms. There have been many attempts to activate such potential patients, for example the media campaign of the Polish League for Fighting Cancer under the slogan “Cancer will not wait for the epidemic to end”. We encouraged them, however, to leave the house and report to specialists – explains prof. Jacek Jassem, head of the Department and Clinic of Oncology and Radiotherapy of the Medical University of Gdańsk and president of the Board of the Polish League for Fighting Cancer.

That is why the Polish League for Fighting Cancer, at the beginning of the pandemic, created a catalog of symptoms that we often ignore, and which may indicate cancer developing in us: the digestive system, mouth, throat, larynx, skin, cervix, bladder or blood.

But according to prof. Jassem, another very serious barrier in the treatment of serious diseases, and at the same time the cause of death, was the difficulty in getting to a doctor, especially a general practitioner.

– Let us remember that primary health care has largely changed the form of care from direct to teleporting during the pandemic. And teleporting in the case of cancer diagnosis does not work. If a patient has any concerns suggesting cancer, it should be absolutely seen – explains Prof. Jassem.

1. Telepaths in oncology. What are the indications? When are they not a good idea?

And although after a few months the Ministry of Health defined the detailed terms of teleportation and excluded symptoms suggesting cancer from them, many patients had no chance to recover.

The rest of the article under the video:

Health neglected patients

The pandemic reality has shown that most of the deaths in 2020 were caused by causes unrelated to COVID-19, and also exposed the failure of the health care system of Poles.

– He was practically paralyzed by this epidemiological catastrophe. Patients requiring constant medical care suffered as a result. Because numerous departments in Poland, especially internal medicine departments, have been transformed for patients fighting the coronavirus. The availability of other patients to hospital beds has also worsened – diagnosed the problem by Dr. Beata Poprawa, MD, head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the hospital. dr. B. Hager in Tarnowskie Góry.

The doctor explains that today her hospital receives patients who should have been treated for a long time, but due to the pandemic they had no such possibility.

– In the hospital where I work, I deal with neglected patients: with increased circulatory failure and advanced neoplastic process. And statistics show that the average life expectancy of Poles is shortening, it was caused by the pandemic. Before we saw the opposite, we lived longer and longer. This is a big step backwards, explains Dr. Poprawa.

What did patients die of in the pandemic?

“Neglected health” patients are one thing, but in the pandemic there was another problem – with determining the causes of the patient’s death.

The World Health Organization has long developed a system for classifying diseases, ailments and causes of death. The list is constantly updated with new diseases, including COVID-19.

The death certificate is completed by a doctor who assesses the three causes of death of the patient: primary, secondary and direct. For example, when the primary cause is chronic heart failure, then the secondary cause is exacerbation of chronic heart failure and pulmonary edema. The immediate cause is respiratory and circulatory arrest.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus made things complicated.

According to a specialist in lung diseases, Marcin Murmyła, in a pandemic, the coding of diseases by some doctors leaves much to be desired.

– The number of “excess” deaths in Poland is simply terrifying. There is no doubt that this phenomenon is directly or indirectly related to the COVID-19 epidemic and some of the patients died from the coronavirus or due to complications in the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, it is worth noting that disease coding in Poland leaves much to be desired. The classifications of diseases that have become the cause of death are simply often misspelled in Poland. It is enough to look at the studies of the PZH-National Institute of Public Health. As a result, drawing conclusions from these questionable statistics is flawed. For example, if a patient struggled with respiratory failure in the course of COVID-19, the latter was entered as the cause. Or pneumonia. Another example: if an elderly person suffering from coronavirus had both senile dementia and cardiovascular failure, then COVID-19 was often omitted in her death certificate – analyzes the former director of the Lower Silesian Center for Lung Diseases, who was dismissed from his post for publicly asking for a non-transparent connection the hospital he manages with another facility in Wrocław.

The rumor spread among the people

According to Marcin Murmyła, the indirect cause of the excess deaths was the fact that the patients did report to hospital treatment, but there were no available beds. And one more thing.

– People were afraid to leave the house and go to the hospital, because there was a rumor that it is the easiest place to get infected there. The excessive use of telepaths by primary health care physicians, which are a convenient and safe form of contact with the patient, also contributed to the failure. Of course, in a minority of cases such contact between the patient and his doctor may suffice. But in most cases, the doctor must carefully examine the patient, listen to the work of the heart and lungs, and he will not evaluate the X-ray over the phone, ‘he explains.

And he emphasizes that the hospital under his management, apart from covid activity, simultaneously conducted the specialist, pulmonary one: patients who required urgent oncological and pulmonary diagnostics had it at the right time. Thoracic surgery, that is operations that involve opening the chest so that the doctor could reach the lungs affected by cancer, was also performed smoothly. The entire cancer department was working normally.

Whoever survived, survived. And whoever was weaker died

Murmyło makes it clear that it was only possible thanks to the superhuman effort of doctors, nurses and all medical staff, although there were no tests for the virus

– We learned in battle. But we are talking about a hospital in a big city, where doctors have various methods of oxygen therapy, for example mechanical ventilation, where pneumothorax is a frequent complication, and then consultations of many specialists are necessary. As in cases of neurological and cardiac complications. In large hospitals, it is all there, so the number of deaths was lower. However, poviat hospitals, without taking anything away from them, are in a much worse situation in this respect. The one who survived has survived. And whoever was weaker died. If he were in a different hospital, with better equipment capabilities, skills and knowledge of medical staff, he would have a better chance of survival – adds Murmyło.

Each day of delay in cancer treatment has incalculable consequences

In 2020, the number of cancer patients registered in the system clearly decreased. – In the surveys we conducted, patients complained about the difficult access to specialist doctors. In 2020, we recorded 20 percent in Poland. fewer cancer diagnoses – says prof. Jassem. But this does not mean that there were fewer tumors. Why? Because they were not registered.

— These patients were delayed in treatment and there were many more of them in the first months of 2021. And they are in more advanced stages of the disease, because each day of delay in cancer treatment has incalculable consequences. We do not have detailed data on this yet, but doctors point out that they have never seen such a wave of advanced cancer before – the oncologist says.

And Marcin Murmyło adds at the end: – All this proves that the health care system in our country is not prepared for crisis situations, and there was mainly a lack of epidemiological planning. Provincial action plans in the event of mass incidents or epidemics quickly turned out to be meaningless pages. Nobody used them.

This may interest you:

1. These people are more likely to die from COVID-19
2. How does a person die? First the soul and finally the body
3. How Do You Know When Death Is Coming? These are the characteristic symptoms

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