A hospital in Starr County, Texas, is so overrun with coronavirus cases that officials there said it would choose which patients to use its resources on and send those most likely to die back home to their families.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Dr. Jose Vasquez — the health authority for Starr County — said the county was creating guidelines to help health workers decide how to use resources on patients with the best chance of survival.
Vasquez added that a committee would decide which patients were most likely to die at Starr County Memorial Hospital — the only hospital in the county — and would send them home.
"The situation is desperate," he said Tuesday. "We cannot continue functioning in the Starr County Memorial Hospital nor in our county in the way that things are going. The numbers are staggering."
Vasquez said the county sends coronavirus patients daily to other parts of Texas and to other states, but that hospitals in both Texas and nearby states were now overwhelmed.
"There is nowhere to put these patients. The whole state of Texas and neighboring states have no ICU beds to spare for us," he said, Border Report reported.
The decision is reminiscent of the decisions made by doctors in Italy in March, when that country was being ravaged by the virus. They said they had to choose who to save because of limited resources.
https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-starr-county-hospital-forced-choose-who-sent-home-die-2020-7
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Dr. Jose Vasquez — the health authority for Starr County — said the county was creating guidelines to help health workers decide how to use resources on patients with the best chance of survival.
Vasquez added that a committee would decide which patients were most likely to die at Starr County Memorial Hospital — the only hospital in the county — and would send them home.
"The situation is desperate," he said Tuesday. "We cannot continue functioning in the Starr County Memorial Hospital nor in our county in the way that things are going. The numbers are staggering."
Vasquez said the county sends coronavirus patients daily to other parts of Texas and to other states, but that hospitals in both Texas and nearby states were now overwhelmed.
"There is nowhere to put these patients. The whole state of Texas and neighboring states have no ICU beds to spare for us," he said, Border Report reported.
The decision is reminiscent of the decisions made by doctors in Italy in March, when that country was being ravaged by the virus. They said they had to choose who to save because of limited resources.
https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-starr-county-hospital-forced-choose-who-sent-home-die-2020-7
