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More than 600 covid-19 patients are hospitalized in Nicaragua

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  • More than 600 covid-19 patients are hospitalized in Nicaragua

    Source: https://confidencial.com.ni/paciente...-de-nicaragua/

    Source: https://confidencial.com.ni/paciente...-de-nicaragua/

    More than 600 covid-19 patients are hospitalized in Nicaragua
    Dozens die daily in Managua, Chinandega, Masaya, and Rivas; beds, fans and primary supplies are scarce and more staff are infected
    confidential.com.ni
    May 24, 2020

    In ten of the nineteen hospitals assigned by the Ministry of Health to face the covid-19 pandemic, there are approximately 600 people hospitalized with symptoms of this disease, some admitted to Intensive Care and connected to ventilators, according to complaints from family members and medical sources. , despite the fact that the Daniel Ortega regime insists on minimizing the pandemic. On average, in these national reference hospitals for the care of patients with covid-19, between 15 and twenty people die every day, some days even more than thirty, with health complications associated with the disease.

    The most terrifying scenario is experienced in the German-Nicaraguan Hospital, in Managua, the first hospital center where an isolation area for positive or suspected patients was enabled since the end of February, although the Government confirmed the first case until March 18.

    According to the Nicaraguan Medical Unit (UMN), the German Hospital has 276 cases of about 500 patients with symptoms of covid-19 hospitalized throughout the country, although the Ministry of Health classifies the majority as "indeterminate" or "atypical pneumonia" cases. .

    In the area of ​​Gate No. 2, which was enabled in this Hospital for the attention of the pandemic, the few beds that may be available are filled daily, while a row of corpses wrapped in sheets awaits in the corridors before the quotas also bumped into the morgue. Medical sources consulted by CONFIDENCIAL estimate a daily average of 10 to 15 deaths only in that hospital.

    The Minsa "is reinforcing the German Hospital with resident doctors from the Len?n Fonseca Hospital, from Manolo Morales, and there is a plan to reinforce the hospitals with general doctors who come from health centers," said a medical source who asked not to be summoned to this article.

    Hospital doctors question official data

    The pulmonologist Jorge Iv?n Miranda, who attends the Monte Espa?a Hospital, criticizes that the figure of 17 deaths from covid-19, which the Minsa admits, "has nothing to do with reality", since in hospitals they register daily deceased people and that is a reality "at first glance".

    The infectologist Carlos Quant, who provides services at the Baptist Hospital and the Dr. Roberto Calder?n School Hospital, also doubts the veracity of the official data, and argues that "it would suffice to add the deaths of the German Nicaraguan and Manolo Morales hospitals to reach a similar figure ”in a single day, although the Minsa recorded it over two months.

    Doctors base their criticism on their daily experience in hospital centers.

    In Managua, Chinandega, Le?n, Masaya and Matagalpa, medical sources report that they are full, with few or no beds available, primary supplies are scarce, and the number of doctors and health personnel with symptoms of infection is growing. The bodies of deceased patients are also beginning to accumulate in some of these centers, although the Government only admits 279 confirmed cases and 17 deaths, well below the independent verified reports.

    The pressure due to the scarcity of conditions and the limited capacity in hospital centers alarms doctors and health personnel, because the curve of covid-19 infections in Nicaragua has only just begun its rise, and independent epidemiologists estimate that it will go up. for an extended period of time, due to the lack of preventive measures, in a Government that continues to promote a variety of massive activities.

    Deceased staff at Manolo Morales

    Among the suspected cases of covid-19 that are not reported by the Minsa, there would be around 180 infected Health workers, a situation that has generated even more pressure on the health authorities.

    Placed worldwide on the so-called “front line” against the pandemic, Nicaraguan Health personnel are further exposed by the lack of protective equipment and pressure from the regime that has refused to listen to the warnings and demands of the union .

    At the Manolo Morales Hospital, the area designated for suspected covid-19 patients has 54 people admitted, 17 of them connected to mechanical ventilators. The daily average of deaths is also around ten.

    Among those who died at the Manolo Morales Hospital, an anesthesia technician and a hospital messenger are reported to have caught the virus while working. In addition, three doctors from that hospital are admitted to the covid-19 area.

    Doctor Quant details that 20% of the doctors at the Manolo Morales Hospital would have been infected with the virus, that is, 31 of 162 Health workers. He also assured that in private hospitals there is "a high proportion of workers" who would have become ill from this same cause.

    For Dr. Miranda, the reason why the Minsa is not reporting the number of health workers infected by covid-19, is that they are "sensitive cases" that put hospitals in a "critical" situation. The concealment of these cases “speaks very badly of them” because if the Health personnel are infected they have to remove it and “since there is no one to replace it with”, the Health system could become congested.

    A deceased doctor in Rivas

    Dr. Miranda confirmed the death in Rivas of the first doctor due to the pandemic this Thursday. This is doctor Luis ?ngel Ocampo Donair, 32 years old. The doctor, who had symptoms similar to covid-19, worked for a non-governmental organization, and was being treated in a private clinic by his father and forensic doctor Luis Ocampo Jara.

    The doctor suffered from asthma and had symptoms of covid-19 for a week, but refused to go to a hospital. His health condition became complicated after several days, so his relatives decided to transfer him to the Gaspar Garc?a Laviana Hospital, in that city, but he died when he was arriving in the Emergency area, according to what his father told the newspaper La Prensa.

    In Rivas, fifteen covid-19 patients are reported in the hospital, five deceased, and at least three, in the municipalities of San Juan del Sur, San Jorge and Potos?.

    The official statistics do not reflect any data on the spread of covid-19 among Health personnel, but an investigation carried out by CONFIDENCIAL revealed that at least six workers from the Minsa laboratories would have been infected with the virus, in addition to other workers from the National Complex. "Conchita" Palacios, where these offices are located.

    A source with access to information from the hospitals assured that when the capacity of the German Nicaraguan Hospital is no longer enough, the use of the Manolo Morales Hospital will be oriented "as a second referral hospital for patients with covid-19". Then the Len?n Fonseca Hospital would follow, where a room for patients with covid-19 has already been set up, but so far no further reports have been obtained.

    A "parallel reality"

    Despite the deficiencies in the Health system, on April 15, President Daniel Ortega praised the training of Nicaraguan doctors and stated that "practically 90% of the hospitals" in the State "are equipped with all basic resources" to attend to the health emergency caused by the new coronavirus.

    "We have the capacities to serve the population, while the rate at which the epidemic has been manifesting has been what we have managed to manage. In other words, we did not come out in a stampede, ”said Ortega. A month later, the epidemic is not only out of control, but resources are insufficient and even the most trained doctors are overwhelmed by the large number of cases.

    In its latest weekly report, after seven days of silence, the Minsa raised the number of cases from 25 to 279, with a record of 254 new cases in a single week. However, the report is at least eight times less than the number of cases registered by the independent count of the Citizen Observatory COVID-19, which requires 2323 cases, with 404 deaths.

    Resources are limited

    In private hospitals, the number of patients suspected of covid-19 is less, but the rooms set up for this purpose are crowded, access is restricted, and doctors do not have enough supplies to care for patients.

    In the Alejando D?vila Bola?os Military Hospital, 60 admitted patients are reported, seven of them connected to ventilators. It is stated that six public officials with symptoms of covid-19, including a deputy from the Sandinista Front bench, would also be hospitalized in this hospital center.

    At the Monte Espa?a Hospital, which cares for patients referred by Social Security, several doctors have quit for fear of catching the virus, as they do not have enough protective equipment. The hospital management would have distributed cloth masks to all the staff and in the covid-19 area special suits are scarce and must be constantly sterilized.

    A source from the Vivian Pellas Metropolitan Hospital also confirmed that the hospital has 18 suspected covid-19 patients and explained that currently "there are no beds available" in the two wards that were enabled to attend the pandemic. Likewise, in the Baptist Hospital, the room for suspected covid-19 patients is filled with 20 patients.

    Doctor recovers in Chinandega

    At Hospital Espa?a, in Chinandega, 14 patients remain hospitalized in the covid-19 area, two of them connected to mechanical ventilators. Meanwhile, the radiologist who was infected with the coronavirus, and remained for more than two weeks is in a delicate state, would already be in recovery and for a few days was disconnected from the artificial ventilator on which he depended.

    Medical sources from Hospital Espa?a, the focus of the pandemic contagion, have confirmed that in recent days they have not received serious patients and that a person suspected of covid-19 died in a private clinic in that department.

    In the Hospital ?scar Danilo Rosales Arg?ello (Heodra) Hospital, in Le?n, 75 patients with covid-19 are hospitalized, located on the first floor of the hospital, where the Emergency room worked. Meanwhile, patients who arrive urgently for other conditions are treated at the second level, where the Outpatient Consultation used to work.

    On the other hand, a medical source from the C?sar Amador Molina Hospital, in Matagalpa, confirmed that at least 25 suspected covid-19 patients had been admitted to this place, and the hospital's Emergency area was enabled to attend to patients with covid-19. and the External Consultation became an Emergency.

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