A Texas hospital struggling with resources and rooms overflowing with patients has announced it might be forced to send patients considered too weak or too sick to recover home.
The Starr County Memorial Hospital located in Starr County, one of the poorest counties in the country, has formed a so-called ‘death panel’ consisting of members who will review cases and decide what treatments certain patients require and what are their chances of survival.
In addition, the committee will have to decide which patients are considered too weak or too sick to be given space at the overcrowded hospital.
According to the reports, the county that is home to some 64,000 people already has over 1,700 confirmed cases and the Starr County Memorial Hospital is running out of space and medical supplies to treat the ever-growing influx of patients.
“There is nowhere to put these patients. The whole state of Texas and neighboring states have no ICU beds to spare for us,” Dr. Jose Vazquez, the hospital’s president, expressed as per Border Report.
“End-of-life decisions and hospice decisions and comfort-care situation for all those patients who most certainly do not have any hope of improving we believe they will be better taken care in the love of their own family and home rather than thousands of miles away dying alone.”
As Dr. Vazquez reassured, the ethics and triage committees will ensure that each case is reviewed separately. He allegedly also confirmed that half of their ER cases are related to COVID-19.
“The situation is desperate. We cannot continue functioning at Starr County Memorial Hospital the way things are going. The numbers are staggering,” Dr. Vazquez concluded according to Border Report.
Replaced!