Article Analysis
In this article, the Dr Klitzman argues that the end of the coronavirus will not be the end of our crisis, but instead we will be faced with the crisis of caring for individuals who survived from Covid-19. The author argues that the majority of individuals who recover will emerge with debilitating infirmities that will result in significant problems in healthcare. These medical problems that the survivors will have will incur additional tax on hospital resources, rehabilitation centres and other healthcare practitioners.
The author attempts to make this case by effectively explaining the hard conditions that covid-19 patients go through before recovering. The author explains that it’s the conditions that the patients stay in healthcare systems that result in various medical problems. The author argues that there is a lot of data concerning the death and survival of covid-19 patients. However, information on survival quality is low. The limited data on survivors, however, is enough to show how ventilated and critically ill patients fare after being in intensive care units for weeks, thus raising concerns.
Yes, the author uses logical argumentation. In his argument, Dr Klitzman claims that most of the covid-19 patients have breathing problems, which is logical as it a symptom. As a result of this problem, a tube has to be inserted into their mouths and into their airways to help them breathe. Tongue depressors are also used on patients and even sedatives used on them to help stabilize their breathing and ease the discomfort. This goes on every day and for weeks before one recover. In addition to this, the patients do not move around, thus just wasting their muscles. The author argues that, in accordance with early studies, these conditions result in about 90 percent of the survivors to have serious kidney problems and about 25 percent needing renal replacement therapy like dialysis.
Dr.Klitzman uses an example of Britain where most covid-19 patients were spending a long time in ICU after being admitted. He says that by mid-May this year, patients who had spent 20 days in the hospital had not been discharged yet. He then argues that patients who tend to spend too much time in the ICU are at a high risk of developing post-intensive-care syndrome such as neurological and cognitive issues together with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Survivors are also at risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. A patient may take months or even years before recovering from these problems.
He, therefore, argues that 20 percent of patients recovering from covid-19 will still have these health issues in the next five years. To support his argument, Dr Klitzman uses information provided by three medical experts at Harvard where they claim that if for example 40 percent of individuals become infected with covid-19 then more than 20 million US citizens will be hospitalized and about 4.5 million will need intensive care.
To emphasize on his point, he uses a rhetorical question where he asks, “How will we deal with them?”. Dr Klitzman explains that today, most hospitals try to discharge patients with these medical problems to rehabilitation centres, long-term acute care hospitals or nursing homes. However, these institutions usually have minimum space and refuse to accept covid-19 patients who may still be infectious. Therefore the number of these patients in hospitals continue to be high, and utilizing resources that could be used to treat individuals with other diseases like cancer and diabetes, forcing them to postpone treatment.
Yes, the author’s position is reasonable. This is because it’s clear that spending weeks in intensive care units will result in many patients having various medical issues. Thus the government will still be forced to spend a lot in caring for these patients. Most hospitals today are concerned with covid-19 patients neglecting other patients who may have serious complications.