Taking a young woman off of a ventilator, because you KNEW she was going to die, makes you indispensable to the medical profession right NOW! And able to march through a clinical care ward and say, keep that one in, take that one out, he's finished anyway!

Such power and only rivalled by God!

Me? If the ventilator wasn't needed elsewhere or could be shared with another "hopeless" patient? I'd leave hem both ventilated as long as they went clinically brain dead! On a shared ventilator!

And because, I KNOW of at least one case of one Gentleman who was revived his intellectual facilities intact after 11 hours of being reportedly, clinically dead!?

I'd be inclined to err on the side of heartfelt compassion rather than perceived foreknowledge or hardened callous realism! And all to often the outcome when you've seen too many folks die! Even with the best care you could give or enable!

Was given care of an elderly blind man in his late eighties, with pneumonia, who was allegedly slipping away even with antibiotics etc. The family were given the hard cold facts and the Gentleman returned to them, with, he's as good as dead anyway.

He came to us and we put him on a bed elevated at the feet then began postal drainage tridaily in three shifts with yours truly providing two of them and the Special ( Goldilocks, not too hard not too soft) postal massage that loosened the rubish in his lungs. And kept at for three exhausting weeks as he gradually recovered minus antibiotics or ventilator!

For mine, only God can decide whether we live or die and that man was placed in my humble hands, because God decided it was not yet his time!

Take care aand stay safe.
Alan B.

It seems, according to reports, most of the deaths are the result of complicating P.E's? And therefore treatable if timely? With clot busters?

Take care and stay safe.
Alan B.

thanks Andrew. What is among the most wicked choice today is to murder unborn children covered by skin in mass proportions.

A touching, brave and elegantly written article.

Insufficient ventilators and broader ICU resources has been an indictment of America's health system and its broader system of social values. The American poor cannot afford the health insurance to save their lives.

As the world's richest country the US shouldn't be allowing nearly 2,000 Americans a day to die from COVID.

runner,
You might want to delve into Fallcabal !
So should everyone really !

Hmmm.. yes a well written piece, but I am sure its a well practiced one. Who would disagree... BUT... like all religious and medical viewpoints it has ring of all-knowing and 'were special' to it.

Ghosts are not always dead mate, and while doctors can bury their mistakes, the rest of us must life with the reality of the real world and make decisions that effect the living. After 40 years in the real world of employing and firing people, I can assure you, those ghost are particular hard to bury... simple from the fact that you and they continue to live with the consequences of those decisions ( right or wrong as they maybe).

In times such as this, I feel for those wo loose jobs, and in some cases long hard-working careers which they have put more than "just earning money" into. having been responsible for cutting teams of often young, and old by 1/3rd, the responsibly for me and the pain for them does not rest lightly. Many have understood, and indeed gone on to prosper. Others have been imbittered, particularly the older ones nearing retirement or mid-life. Worst of all can be the response of those who retained their jobs, and blame YOU, personally for their mates demise.

I old friends daughter who I first met at 13, is now a triage nurse in A&E. Now that is where the real burden lies in such times, not at the hands of the more privileged elitist doctors. Equally so, my former managers, are having to deal with the burden of sacking staff, in this case for no reason/cause, other than this dreaded attack of Chinese government and NSW government incompetence (Brad Hazard and Dr Kerry Chant... shameful we still have to watch them perform and carry-on unaffected for their incompetent handing of cruise ships since Jan2020, not just the Ruby Princess).

Yes good article, but well trodden path, that ignores the broader, physical, financial and mental ghost that the living must bare.