VERMILLION, S.D.:
Donations
Deceased donations are even more complicated. Early on, testing shortages made it hard to be sure would-be donors who died of something unrelated like a car crash were virus-free, a problem that’s easing. Still, hospitals don’t want out-of-town surgeons visiting to retrieve organs and can’t always spare a local surgeon to do the job or find a plane to fly the organs where they need to go.
Surgeons must weigh if it makes sense to accept less-than-perfect organs that might work but could keep the recipient hospitalized for longer.
University of Iowa kidney surgeon Dr. David Axelrod said his team is “trying to be careful about it, trying to make sure that they’re organs that we think people can come in and get transplanted successfully and go home quickly.”
Medical students help rural communities cope with COVID-19
Also: Some students at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine are staying in rural communities to help staff hospitals and clinics during the coronavirus outbreak.
Resources can be tight in rural settings, especially if healthcare workers or their family members become ill.
Medical students Carl Lang and Riley Schaap are currently volunteering in Winner, KSFY-TV reported.
“We’re in this profession to serve others, to help other patients and so I’d say that was the main reason myself and other classmates wanted to come to these rural locations to help out in ,” said Lang. They are also gaining important experience. “To learn how we can benefit our patients in the future if this were to happen again,”said Lang.
“Healthcare workers may become ill, their families may become ill and we need students really to assist and fill a void in those situations,” said Susan Anderson Dean of Rural Medicine at USD.
“Actually learning about how does a local community, how does a local hospital and clinic prepare for a pandemic that can be unpredictable? Because unfortunately we’ll probably be in a similar situation again sometime during their career,” said Anderson.