We opened an 18 bed ICU at Hammersmith Hospital about 10 days ago - does anyone have any idea what a big deal that is?

It’s now full of patients with #COVID19
A testament to the professionalism of our staff

We have opened 5 ICUs in the past year…

@ImperialNHS
It’s a scary thing to do... but colleagues have identified problems and fixed them…

But it is hard to put into words how big the challenge is for staff, and how hard they are working… nobody should take them for granted.

It’s the people who make an ICU
We have learned relentlessly as we have gone

Nor should anyone underestimate what Critical Care Staff have achieved, because we are inventing solutions to difficult problems daily, but also what we have been through over the past year…
Things can go wrong very fast in ICU, and when they do it can be very frightening… even when you know do what to do…

And whoever you are, these aren’t things you get over in 5 minutes

ICU in #COVID19 is no joke, and it’s not easy

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Dr Simon Ashworth

Dr Simon Ashworth Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DrSimonAshworth

28 Jan
Dear @DesmondSwayne I have seen your statement that “ICUs are operating at below normal capacity”

I am the Director of intensive care at a London Trust. I have worked in ICU since 1995.

We have opened 5 makeshift ICUs over the past year (one we closed and haven’t reused)
We now have close to 3x as many people on ventilators as we were established for this day 12 months ago…
We have consultants of all stripes working alongside nurses, as nurses, delivering bedside care…
Read 7 tweets
21 Dec 20
Had a phone call today to go and receive the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine at a GP Hub which had run out of patients to inoculate

We turned up at 30min notice were screened, ID checked, and vaccinated in 10min

THANK YOU to all those who contributed to this!
1/
It made me reflect on what a vindication COVID has been for science

The scientific method of observation, generating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis and adapting has worked brilliantly, even if we are all pretty gloomy
2/
This would all have been impossible even a few years ago

The advances in molecular biology and DNA sequencing have been staggering…

And compare this to flu 1918, or the hundreds of years of Plague!
3/
Read 6 tweets
19 Dec 20
70% rise in transmissibility of #SARS_COV2 is really worrying

Sounds like enhanced Christmas restrictions are more than justified
Clear evidence of exponential spread in London and New Tier 4 areas

#SARSCoV2
This is good evidence of the increased transmissibility

#nvSARSCoV2
Read 4 tweets
22 Nov 20
I am a senior doctor in Critical Care in one of the UK’s largest Trusts, so unhappily I have gained expertise in COVID, and humbly I say that there is much more pressure on hospitals, especially their ICUs
ICU/Critical Care is one of those specialities which is a fulcrum on which most hospitals depend

People who need major surgery often require ICU care as do those who suffer complications of cancer treatment, heart disease, trauma, infections, etc
The UK has a baseline of around 3500 staffed ICU beds, far below countries like Germany, Italy, and the US

They barely meet our needs at the best of times…
Read 16 tweets
9 Oct 20
If you have to ask, it’s disappointing.

But the answer is none of the staff who we need to care for critically ill patients have quite mastered the art of being in two places at once…
I realise my reply may seem facetious, so I will give more details. Initially COVID was presented as a simple disease and a bit of ventilation was all that was required. In fact it isn’t.
COVID is a multisystem disease that causes pneumonia skewed towards the highest severity of illness with terrible lung disease, kidney failure, brain involvement and very abnormal blood clotting. Some patients get poor cardiac function too. Treatment is rapidly evolving.
Read 9 tweets
8 Oct 20
Reckless with Hydroxychloroquine, there is a better chance Trump will be right that REGN-CoV2 will be of benefit. But we don’t know for sure and RCTs are essential

Not so sure millions of doses will be available that fast though…

And there is some observational evidence in #COVID19 for convalescent plasma, the active ingredient of which is mixed antibody

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
And convalescent plasma appears safe - adverse events occurred in 1% of people given convalescent plasma (extracted from those recovering from COVID)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32525844/
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!