Coronavirus patient's 'last words' reveal country's major pandemic problem

A nurse working in New York city has revealed the harrowing last words of a coronavirus patient before being intubated and hooked up to a ventilator.

Derrick Smith, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), explained he would never forget the response his patient had as he and his team explained he needed to be intubated and put on a ventilator to help him breath.

“Who’s going to pay for it?” the patient “gasped out, between laboured breaths” Mr Smith recalled.

“We then called his wife to have him speak to her for what was likely his last opportunity, as many patients do not recover once tubed,” he wrote in an emotional Facebook post.

He explained the COVID-19 pandemic was “by far the worst thing” he had witnessed in his 12-year career.

“Next-level heartbreak = having to hear a dying patient use his last words to worry about healthcare finances,” he said.

“This country is truly a failed state, and it’s so sickening to witness firsthand, more blatantly than ever.”

Speaking to Vice, Mr. Smith explained why he decided to make the Facebook post, saying the patients last words summed up the US healthcare system.

“It's completely abhorrent that this question should even come up for a patient who's facing possible death,” he told Vice.

“We're not prepared. We haven't been prepared. It's gross negligence on a lot of levels, from federal to state and so forth.”

It has been noted by the Harvard Business Review and CNN, and many others, that the coronavirus pandemic is exposing flaws in the US healthcare system.

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Unlike Australia, the US does not have a universal healthcare system in place and many peoples’ health insurance is tied to their employment.

“Addressing coronavirus with tens of millions of people without health insurance or with inadequate insurance will be a uniquely American challenge among developed countries,” Executive Vice President for Health Policy at California’s Kaiser Family Foundation tweeted last month.

“It will take money to treat people and address uncompensated care absorbed by providers,” Larry Levitt wrote.

“Despite the many strengths of the US health care system — especially its care of highly complex, specialised problems – it often falls short on the basics,” physicians David Blumenthal and Shanoor Seervai wrote in the Harvard Business Review.

“As Covid-19’s spread continues, it will demonstrate how essential those missing basics truly are.”

Despite the Affordable Care Act, the American Public Health Association found medical care bankrupts 530,000 American every year.

Earlier this week, Americans were told to brace for the worst week of their lives.

The US has surpassed all other countries and now has the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world, with 501,609 cases, according to Johns Hopkins data.

More than 5,800 people who have died of the coronavirus so far in New York City.

Equipment shortages hamper US healthcare response

A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press revealed federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.

Last week nurses protested the lack of masks, gowns, and other protective equipment for health workers treating coronavirus patients in the epicentre of America's deadly pandemic.

"Soldiers don't go to war without guns, why should nurses come to work without protective equipment?" asked Leyrose McIntyre, one of around 30 nurses demonstrating outside a New York hospital.

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