What is considered a horror scenario in Germany in the fourth corona wave is already running in Austria: triage in hospitals. Also on the border with Bavaria. Not only Covid-19 patients are affected.
Munich / Salzburg – The triage. It is a difficult burden, a decision that medical professionals are determined to avoid. Because: If it occurs, doctors as well as intensive care and nurses have to decide which patient they will help first. Then when they are no longer able to adequately care for all patients at the same time. In the worst case, they have to decide between life and death.
Corona in Austria: Triage initiated in individual clinics
This scenario was feared several times during the coronavirus pandemic. In Italy, which is coping well with the fourth corona wave thanks to an advanced vaccination campaign, triage was a bitter reality at the beginning of the pandemic. “If two patients requiring ventilation compete for a ventilation place, then a decision has to be made as to which patient has the better chance of treatment. The treatment place would be assigned to him, “said Erik Bodendieck, the President of the State Medical Association of Saxony, recently about triage due to Corona.
What is feared not only in Saxony, already happened in Austria at the beginning of December. Specifically: The first clinics in the Alpine republic have switched to triage, due to the high number of infections in the second winter of the pandemic, with the result that many corona patients come to the intensive care units.
| Corona situation in Austria | |
| New corona infections | 8,882 |
| registered corona cases so far | 1,179,244 |
| hospitalized with Covid-19 | 3,241 |
| with Covid-19 in the intensive care unit | 637 |
| died with Corona (since the beginning of the pandemic) | 12,625 |
Source: Corona website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, as of December 2
Corona in Austria: Dramatic situation in intensive care units due to Covid 19 patients
As Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) announced in the main committee of parliament, triage is used in some hospitals and intensive care units not only for Covid patients, but also in some cases for cancer patients. Because of a lack of personnel capacities. In some cases a decision has to be made as to which patient has a better chance of survival, Mückstein said. “The intensive care units have never been as full during the pandemic as they are today,” said the 47-year-old Viennese. By the end of November, the load limit of 30 percent of the intensive care beds, occupied by corona patients, was significantly exceeded.
In figures: As of December 2, according to the Corona website of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior, 3,241 people were hospitalized for an infection with the coronavirus, 637 Covid patients were treated in the intensive care units of the Alpine republic – and the trend is rising. According to Health Minister Mückstein, the situation in the intensive care units will worsen in the next one or two weeks.
In the video: Corona in Austria – Unvaccinated people overcrowd intensive care units
An example: The Salzburg state clinics (Salk) on the border with Bavaria had already put together a triage team in mid-November. As of December 2, 12,625 people in Austria had died in connection with the corona virus. Here, too, the trend is increasing again. (pm) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
