‘We’re seeing younger people dying’

...Doctors forced to choose who to save as Covid-19 batters Gauteng

JOHANNESBURG - As Gauteng grapples with the third wave of Covid-19, hospitals are so overwhelmed that medical personnel are now effectively choosing who to try and save.

Gauteng medical personnel have described the pain of choosing who lives or dies because of the shortage of beds and oxygen in the province, which is currently the pandemic's epicentre in the country.

A doctor, from a private hospital, who asked to remain anonymous, told News24 the hospital had to go on divert daily for the past three weeks, turning patients away as there were no ICU beds available.

To illustrate the calamity of the third wave of infections, the doctor said, before the pandemic, between one and three people would die in ICU every month. On Tuesday night, seven people died of Covid-19.

"With the hospital overrun, there just aren't enough resources to care for everyone," he said.

"People are waiting outside; ambulances are standing in queues at hospitals waiting to offload the sick."

He said the situation had become so untenable that doctors now had to decide which patients could be saved and which ones were beyond help.

"We are trying to help the survivors versus every sick person because we can't help everyone."

Begging that people stay at home, the doctor said: oxygen.

People are going to die. Their family members are going to die. This is not a joke. This is not a hoax.

"This is not a wave; this is a tsunami. Reversing this runaway train is going to be almost impossible. We don't have the capacity or resources."

A Gauteng ICU nurse said she had never experienced anything like the third wave.

"This is worse than the first and second waves. We're seeing younger people, without any underlying conditions – and many of them fit – dying.

"Compared to the first and second waves, this wave feels worse. I feel like, if you're now going to be put onto a ventilator, you won't make it. If you're on a ventilator now, you probably won't be walking out of the hospital.

"We're all anxious, worried. We don't know where we're headed, we don't know where it's going to end. We want to help as many people as we can," she said.

She added the situation was so dire that new people were being put into beds barely 30 minutes after the previous occupant had died. – NEWS24.

Gauteng medical personnel have described the pain of choosing who lives or dies because of the shortage of beds and oxygen in the province, which is currently the pandemic’s epicentre in the country.