cactus wren

update on the gal from Scotland. A true miracle of modern, high-tech, medicine: UK: Swine flu woman gives birth to boy (UKPA) - 14 minutes ago http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hTIesyCDfG1hq3QcI94gZ1S4bgqg A pregnant woman from North Ayrshire who was flown to Sweden for life-saving treatment after contracting swine flu has had a baby boy. Sharon Pentleton, 27, feared for the health of her unborn child after she suffered an extreme reaction to the H1N1 virus. But the baby, weighing 6lb 9oz, was successfully delivered by Caesarean section at an Ayrshire hospital on Wednesday. According to reports, Ms Pentleton and her new son appear to be fit and well and nurses are happy with how they are doing. Ms Pentleton was six months pregnant when she went to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock with severe back pain in July, where she was treated for appendicitis before being diagnosed with swine flu. When she slipped into a coma, doctors decided she needed a rare treatment known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which circulates the patient's blood outside the body and adds oxygen to it artificially. All of the UK's five ECMO beds, at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, were full, so she was flown to University Hospital in Stockholm for the treatment. Ms Pentleton said she was anxious about giving birth to her son: "They told me there was nothing to worry about with him, because I was worrying about brain damage because everything that I've been through and the medication I've been on. "But they say there's just a slight chance, they can't tell you 100%, but they say it's very unlikely that he's been damaged in any way - which is a wee miracle." Ms Pentleton and her family have since launched a campaign to raise money for Scotland's own dedicated adult ECMO unit. _________________ Nice to read a bit of good news for a change.

The 1918 flu certainly was H1N1, Dr. Webster and others have reconstructed the virus. Yup, swine flun is less deadly. But............ It is less deadly with early treatment with Tami, vents, and there was that gut who they treated with ECMO. When the Tami runs out ( How much has your state stockpiled?), the vents are all in use, what then? The Holy Grail is vax. OK, lets look at that. There is one,1,uno,vax plant in the US. We rely on overseas plants. Most have clauses that state they must first supply their home countries before sending any to us.Our one plant will eventually make enough, in 5-6 years.Yeah. Our antibiotics are also made overseas. What happens when that supply line crashes? Our modern medicine can do amazing things, but keep running with sick HCW, no meds. limited supplies? I don`t hold out much hope.

Goju, you beat me to it.:yelclap: Please, all you concerned nurses go to HHS site and voice concerns or questions.

Anything around 1918 or greater will shut down many of our hospitals in a few weeks. It`s not just PPEs, and understaffed,overworked HCW, either. Where are the needed supplies going to come from? Little things like IVF, Lab Reagents, O2, food, linens, meds, etc.If they are overwhelmed, then the supply line stops.Our JIT economy will hasten the death of many patients, not just PI patients. Many of our meds are made offshore. Our last US Vit.C plant has closed. All our Vit C is now imported from China. Makes one wonder where things like insulin,BP meds, etc are made,doesn`t it ?

I came across this document and am not sure if it has been posted here already.. Some of the recommendations I don't *think* I have seen before... was from fall 2006 I believe. U of Pittsburg Medical Center -- Center for Biosecurity http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/website/resources/publications/2006_orig-articles/2006-06-15-hospitalprepforpandemiciflu.html PPEs for 8 weeks use of volunteers for patient care. up to 200% surge

Glad to see that were sent to NAMRU3. That means that we`ll get the sequences fairly rapidly. Will be interesting to see of they resemble Egypts or Indos.

CRNI Our CDC is in shambles due to poor management. They are actually pretty worthless when it comes to PF info.Read their own blog( oops,sorry my bad). Our Naval labs are doing heroic work on diagnosing AI. One is in Egypt, another is in Indo. Sounds pretty global to me. If I could find timely, accurate informatiion in MSM I would read that. MSMs message is; " Nothing to see, move along", and return to the endless fascination of who sired Anna`s baby. Pandemics seem to occur about 3 times a century.We`re due.Currently H5N1 seems to be the front runner.But, there are others that could pull and end run and get us,too. The blogs that you disparage so much have folks from all over the world, and posters range from stay at home Moms to world class virologists. Maybe you need to read Sandman`s article on adjustment reactions.

Indigo, I`d save my breathe for the more important goal of trying to alert our nursing breathern about the probability of a PanFlu Year. Some folks won`t believe it can happen until they see the bodies in the streets.

CRNI-ICU20 I for one am very glad that all these flu bloggers exist. I have tried toggletext, it`s tough. have you tried it? It`s a program that allows one to translate from Indonesian to english or Arabic/english. The very ,very dedicated bloggers spend many hours a day translating news from other countries.News that we in English speaking countries would otherwise never hear about. I am hoping ( and I know that hope is not a plan) that their hard work will give us a short heads up before the bodies start piling up in our ERs.

Swine apparently did not have flu until after 1918. So, it seems that us humans gave it to them. As far as appropriate PPEs, remember Totonto during the SARS outbreak> A friend actually worked there. When they ran out of N95 masks, TPTB convinced the nurses that plain surgical masks were good enough, and nurses dies from the resulting SARS infections that they caught. Do we really expect that this won`t happen during a Panflu outbreak? Can`t hurt the bottom line ,now, can we ? Healthcare used to be about actually caring for people, now it`s all about the money,it`s a business.

How many of your friends and neighbors even have 2 weeks of food and water stered? Not many,I bet.And do you have supplies for your family? At the gov. site for panflu, they reccommend having at least a 2 week store of food and WATER for every family member.Water is the most important. And, that is a good START. If the waves last 4-6 weeks, you`re gonna get kinda hungry when that 2 weeks stash is gone. Volunteering is a wonderful thing, I have done and will do it, just not in a pandemic.For one,there will be nowhere that isn`t affected, so might as well start in your own backyard. No folks in white horses are going to be coming to anyone`s rescue. For second, if I have prepped and planned for my family`s safety and comfort, whu would I want to go and expose them to a killer? That`s what I say now, who knows how I will respond when the monster arrives ?

Nigeria is now testing 11 more people for HN51. They report that these folks have had contact with those ones that died. Scary ! Have any of you thought about where that IV bag you just hung was made? Probably not here in the USA. And, when our Just in Time economy breaks down? Not only do hospitals have no room to stock stuff for a 3 month "wave", there isn`t a 3 month supply to be had. CDC is downplaying the use of N95 masks to the general public because there is already a shortage. With only a couple of plants making them already producing at full capacity, none to spare. I have talked to some nurses that are buying their own personel stock of them.

Why should nurses and all HCW be concerned about Panflu ? 60% of those people whi have contracted it have died despite recieving ICU care. We have nowhere near enough ICU beds or even MS beds to deal with what would be needed in an outbreak. IMO,within 2 weeks of an outbreak hospitals will be providing care at a 1918 level. That means holding someone`s hand as they die, wiping a fevered brow, cleaning up code browns, etc. There will be no IVs, no meds, no nothing which we expect as a HCW in 2007. Another point, in 1918 the fataality rate in young,healthy pregnant women approached 100%. Are YOU going to work with no PPEs,no meds, no supplies, and every day face the risk of acquiring this ,or worse taking it home to your loved ones? I`m not.

I find this kinda interesting; Authorities aren't releasing the boy's name. The health department has advised those who came in contact with the boy to see their doctors. Now we know where that wacky psychic went to. How can the contacts report if they don`t know the name? Nothing to see here, move along....

Actually, that is one reason I work ICU. I feel that total patient care is important for me, at least. Maybe it`s from the many years I was a NA( no C when I was an aide). I have friends who work on MS, and they are very hurt, when they occassionally are short aides, and have to give baths...It`s not my job. ????? I`ll stay where I am, thank you !!.