Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
You may have to venture out in a pandemic |
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Penham
Chief Moderator Moderator Joined: February 09 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 14913 |
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Posted: April 05 2008 at 8:52am |
You may have to venture out in a pandemic even if you don't want to or plan to. We are planning on sheltering in place once the pandemic hits, however we had a situation Thursday afternoon where we were forced to go to the ER. I thought I had plenty of medical supplies to deal with most things at home in case of a pandemic, however my 12 year old came home from school on Thursday with pain in her lower right abdomen. We had to go to the ER, after a 4 hour wait, they ran many tests and turns out she had appendacitis, and it was very bad, they called the surgeon in and did emergency surgery at 12:00am. She got to come home yesterday evening, the doctor said he really wanted her out of there as fast as possible so she did not catch anything else from the other people on the floor with her. Luckily we did have a private room. It just goes to show you can't plan everything and unexpected things do come up, I am just glad this didn't happen during a pandemic. So this got me to thinking about how I would handle an emergency like this if there were a pandemic? How long would I wait to go or take someone to the ER? Would I wait too long and it be too late? Just some things to think about.
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Albert
Admin Joined: April 24 2006 Status: Offline Points: 47746 |
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Very good point Penham...
Also glad to hear that your daughter is doing okay now.
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Gexydaf
Admin Group Location: Washington Joined: April 26 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 252 |
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Penham, I am so glad that your daughter and back at home. If faced with a situation like that, I guess you'd have to go to a hospital. What else could you do? But you do make me think that I should know how to set bones and do some other simple medical procedures. The hospitals will be completely overwhelmed during a pandemic, and of course, you don't want to be there breathing all of those germs anyway!
How long is the standard recovery time from appendicitis? If you want some good survival type novels to read with her during her down time, you might want to buy Hatchet or Spirit Bear. Both are kid friendly, though Spirit Bear has a bit of violence in the beginning. |
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Dijoy
Adviser Group Joined: March 16 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 161 |
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I think that during the 1918 Pandemic ,if they had to go out they locked their children in a seperate room. It was said of my Grandmother, she locked little Freddie in his own little room but he still got out and picked something up. She probably locked him in the house and it was during the pandemic that they locked them in their own little room to keep them safe
Diane
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Diane
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Penham
Chief Moderator Moderator Joined: February 09 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 14913 |
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Gexydaf, the recovery time is 8-10 weeks the doctor said, 10 days before she can return to school, she sees him for followup the end of the week. They had to do regular surgery, said they couldn't do the laproscopy, which is what they initially planned until the surgeon saw the report, then changed his mind. It all happened so fast once we got the test results back, the doctor was there and she was in surgery within 30 minutes of us finding out what was wrong. I have really never seen them move that fast before, they had people hooking her up to an IV and starting pain meds, me signing paperwork and the OR nurse in there explaining what was going on all at the same time, then the doc came in and we went to recovery where she got ready and she walked into surgery (she couldn't walk prior to getting pain meds). The surgery was over in an hour and she was in a room by 1:30am. The whole time I kept thinking about a pandemic situation how different it would be, how they wouldn't be able to move so quickly because they would be tied up with other patients. Thanks for the tips on the books. |
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waterboy
Valued Member Joined: January 21 2008 Status: Offline Points: 8170 |
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Im happy too.Im glad shes OK.
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Turboguy
Admin Group Joined: October 27 2007 Status: Offline Points: 6079 |
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Wow Penham, that's scary. Good thing you got her to a hospital and popped that thing out as fast as you did. Sepsis probably isn't any fun!
In a Pandemic, or probably any major crisis situation, I honestly wouldn't put your daughter's survival above 50%! In a Pandemic the hospitals will be filled to !000% capacity within a week, and I don't think many doctors, nurses, and surgeons are going to show up at all. They may say they will now, it's easy to talk big when someone's not pointing a gun at you trying to FORCE you to treat them, or you walk into an abbatoir that used to be a hospital.
The Minneapolis area has an approximate population of 2,614,660 and maybe one thousand hospital beds for the entire area and this area has per capita more hospitals than many other big cities. In the megalopolises like NY, Chicago, etc it's far worse.
We just don't have the hospital resources to handle a crisis. A pandemic would be a nightmare on so many levels.
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Ro2935
Valued Member Joined: June 06 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 276 |
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Penham glad to hear that your daughter is doing ok now.
Surgical intervention is the one thing the average prepper will not be able to prep for. We can put aside food, water, fuel, generators and medical supplies, but there are very few that is able to set up a sterile operating theater in their home, never mind do major surgery.
An emergency you faced is my biggest fear during a pandemic, my daughter has a shunt that controls her hydrocephalus if this failed in a pandemic situation, it would be highly unlikely that she would receive the brain surgery to replace the valve and without it she would be dead within 48 hours.
It wont just be the disease that is causing the pandemic that causes death but also the fact for many they would not be able to receive the life saving treatment such as dialysis, pacemakers ect, people will die in there homes from heart attacks, strokes as there wont be beds available in hospitals to treat them.
Home births without trained midwifes will be more dangerous and the rate of fatalities will rise due to birth complications in both mother and child, and the list could go on and on.
All we can do is prep as much as possible for the things we can control and hope that what we cant control never happens.
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Penham, I am so happy your daughter is getting better. Nothing worse than a sick child! It causes parents to fear because we love them so much.
I have thought about having something like this happen! My only answer is go the the hospital wearing masks, goggles, and gloves and bring lots of masks, gloves, clorox wipes, lysol and Pray Pray Pray! Sometimes you have no choice and as my Mother taught me, "Do the best you can." |
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Gexydaf
Admin Group Location: Washington Joined: April 26 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 252 |
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Penham, Is your daughter all better now?
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starspirit
Valued Member Joined: November 08 2007 Status: Offline Points: 209 |
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penham..glad your daughter is okay.....maybe hospitals will need to get those beeper things they use a restaurants and we can wait outside away from all the germy people ....just a thought...or take our own walkie talkies or cell phones call me when its my turn please.....if its cold out we might freeze to death waiting as slow as most ER's get...but sure glad they acted fast with your daughter.....
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H2HPrep
Valued Member Joined: March 14 2008 Status: Offline Points: 325 |
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Penham, I too am glad your daughter received the care she needed.
As for life during a pandemic or WMD war, supplies, absenteeism and the power
grid will determine the level of technology.
The hospitals will be little more than hotels after a few weeks. Absenteeism could be 50% or more and power may be here and there at best.
The level of technology will be that of 1908.
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My goodness, I'm glad this post popped up again. Gosh Penham, you have had a bit of a time with your daughter and now all your downed trees from the storm. How is she doing now, 8-10 weeks, I guess we're at the half way point. I am glad the last post from you had your daughter doing well. Hope her check up went well, hope she is back in school and on the road to recovery.
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Penham
Chief Moderator Moderator Joined: February 09 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 14913 |
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Thanks for asking, she is doing great. At her 6 week check up they gave her a clean bill of health and could resume all activities, she has been back pitching for her softball team now for a few weeks now. School has been out here for 4 weeks already.
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Penham
Chief Moderator Moderator Joined: February 09 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 14913 |
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I know I kept thinking what is she going to catch while she's here in the hospital for surgery, although I did not mention it to the surgeon, he told us he wanted her out of the hospital ASAP so she didn't get sick. She was in the hospital for less than 24 hours, he said the insurance would approve more, but he would rather her go home to lessen the chance of further infection from someone sick in the hospital even though she had a private room.
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coyote
Admin Group Joined: April 25 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 8395 |
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Glad all is well!
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Long time lurker since day one to Member.
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RICHARD-FL
Valued Member Joined: May 13 2008 Location: N.E. Florida Status: Offline Points: 98 |
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This nightmare you have open for us to see is one that a lot of senior people have watch for a very long time. The government understands what will happen, They will operate the way the military does things in an disaster.
1. Have an interview area set up outside the hospital. All flu cases go to a separate building.
a. Separate treatment areas and different triage used for flu treatment. The survival rate and meds available is important.
b. Individuals involved with treating will get first treatments like tamiflu.
2. Triage the rest, treat most serious first if the patient is expected to survive. If not; make comfortable off to the side and wait for the end.
3. Enter for treatment. All assigned Personal will come under martial law and be expected to appear at their assigned jobs inside the hospital.
Katerina showed just how bad our health care system situation is in this country. The legal system with all the lawsuits have killed off all but a few government owned and operated hospitals.
And that was two years ago, has any of it improved?
RICH-FL
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"...No man is an island on to himself..." Words to remember
RICHARD-FL |
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Richard-Fl, I will bet you are totally correct. All I can say is I am glad I do not work for a hospital.
View Poll Results: Nurses, would you go to work during a Pandemic? No 261 29.93% Yes 415 47.59% undecided 196 22.48% Voters: 872. Poll From allnurses.com It will be interesting how martial law will make nurses and Drs. work if the death rate is very high and if Tamaflu does not work as a preventative. We had better be prepared and pray we do not have to go to the hospital. |
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Dijoy
Adviser Group Joined: March 16 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 161 |
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You only have to stay in for a few weeks during each wave I think. There is hope for us all. Our forbears survived by working a lot on food but it has gone out of fashion in the last 50 years
Diane
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Diane
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Penham
Chief Moderator Moderator Joined: February 09 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 14913 |
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Totally off the topic but we got the bills/insurance payment forms yesterday and this little hospital visit for less than 24 hours came to $20,000. I feel bad for people that don't have insurance, I can't imagine having to pay these bills out of pocket.
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H2HPrep
Valued Member Joined: March 14 2008 Status: Offline Points: 325 |
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Imagine the cost of treating a person who develops symptoms of human avian influenza. It could involve many days of ICU care. I wonder if the triage will include your ability to pay? Avoidance during a wave is the best medicine. |
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