Who will live or die: Italy passes China in coronavirus deaths as doctors prepare to make harrowing choices

... And so, in just under a month, one of the world's best health care systems nears collapse. And with that, doctors prepare to make harrowing choices as to who can live and who may die.

Who will live or die: Italy passes China in coronavirus deaths as doctors prepare to make harrowing choices Italy-coronavirus-2020-03-19t115529z

The Italian association of anesthesiologists and intensive care doctors has put out a sobering document on the moral choices that doctors may have to make when resources are scarce. Dr. Marco Vergano, an anesthesiologist, intensive-care unit doctor and the lead author of the document, said he and his co-authors wrote it in response to the distressing moral choices his colleagues in the north of Italy had to make about who to treat when there aren't enough resources to treat everyone.

The document suggests that ICU treatment be given "to those patients with the highest possibility of therapeutic success, therefore we must prioritize 'the highest hope for survival' … This means we do not have to necessarily follow a 'first come first served' criteria for access to intensive care."

Furthermore, the document states, "It may be necessary to impose an age limit to entry into intensive care … in order to reserve what may be extremely scarce resources for those who, first of all, have the highest probability of survival and, secondly, may have more years of life saved."

Vergano stressed that these are "last resort' recommendations to be used only when all other options are exhausted. With numbers rapidly increasing daily, that day may be fast approaching.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-deaths-italy-china-doctors-prepare-to-make-harrowing-choices/

Who will live or die: Italy passes China in coronavirus deaths as doctors prepare to make harrowing choices

Who will live or die: Italy passes China in coronavirus deaths as doctors prepare to make harrowing choices

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