Italian Coronavirus Victims Over 80 Will Not Receive Treatment If The Situation Worsens Under Emergency Plans

by Shatakshi Gupta
Italy

As of now, we all would be very well aware of the havoc which the COVID – 19 is actually causing around the world. Coronavirus which started spreading from Wuhan in China has now become greater destruction for Italy. Italy has been reporting continuously the cases of COVID – 19 infected individuals in huge numbers. The deaths are also caused by this virus in greater numbers.

Now here the context is that the Coronavirus victims of Italy would be denied access to that intensive care in case they lie in the age group of 80 or more or those in poor health would actually pressurize on beds increase, as per the document which was prepared by a crisis management unit in Turin proposes.

Those patients who had denied intensive care would in effect be left to die, this is feared by doctors.

The unit had formulated up the protocol, which was viewed by The Telegraph, as per this document it would be determined that which patients receive treatment in intensive care and which do not in case there are inadequate spaces. Intensive care capacity is running short in Italy as the coronavirus continues to spread.

This very document, which is produced by the civil protection department of the Piedmont region, one of those hardest hit, says: “The criteria for access to intensive therapy in cases of emergency must include the age of less than 80 or a score on the Charlson comorbidity index (which indicates how many other medical conditions the patient has) of less than 5.”

The very capacity of the patient to recuperate from resuscitation will too be considered.

The document says: “The growth of the current epidemic makes it likely that a point of imbalance between the clinical needs of patients with COVID-19 and the effective availability of intensive resources will be reached.

“Should it become impossible to provide all patients with intensive care services, it will be necessary to apply criteria for access to intensive treatment, which depends on the limited resources available.”

It adds: “The criteria set out guidelines if the situation becomes of such an exceptional nature as to make the therapeutic choices on the individual case depends on the availability of resources, forcing [hospitals] to focus on those cases in which the cost/benefit ratio is more favorable for clinical treatment.”

The document is already complete and only approval from a technical-scientific committee is needed before it is sent to hospitals. The criteria are expected to apply throughout Italy, government sources said.

The number of the death toll in Italy had already crossed 1,000, due to the virus and also the number is growing on a daily basis. Around more than 15,000 are already infected.

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Italy right now has around 5,090 intensive care beds, which for this moment is exceeding the number of patients who actually need them. Also, the country is working to create new bed capacity in certain private clinics, nursing homes as well as even in tents. However, the country also needs also doctors and nurses – the government wants to hire them – and equipment.

Lombardy is actually the most castigatory region in Italy right now. Nevertheless, the condition is also solemn in neighboring Piedmont. Here, the situation is worsening as 180 new cases were recorded just in one day, while the number of deaths recorded is 27. The course is suggesting that the condition is not about to improve.

Roberto Testi, the president of the coronavirus technical-scientific committee for Piedmont, informed The Telegraph: “Here in Piedmont we aim to delay as long as possible the use of these criteria. At the moment there are still intensive care places available and we are working to create more.

“We want to arrive as late as possible at the point where we have to decide who lives and who dies. The criteria relate only to access to intensive care – those who do not get access to intensive care will still receive all the treatment possible. In medicine, we sometimes have to make difficult choices but it’s important to have a system about how to make them.”