Doctors in Brazil, badly affected, have resorted to tying COVID-19 patients to hospital beds before taking advantage of ventilators down their throats, as they no longer have enough sedatives, according to doctors in Rio de Janeiro. “I never thought I would live something like this after 20 years working in intensive care,” Aureo do Carmo Filho told Reuters. “The use of mechanical restraints without sedatives is a bad practice … the patient is subjected to a form of torture.”
In hospitals where they still have sedatives, health professionals have resorted to diluting them to make supplies go further or to use muscle relaxants to soothe patients while they are intubated. “They’re awake, sedative-free, and they show up, with their hands tied to the bed and begging us not to let them die,” one nurse said.
The horrific admissions come after Doctors Without Borders considers Brazil’s response to the pandemic a “humanitarian catastrophe” that is likely to only get worse in the coming weeks. “I must be very clear: the negligence of the Brazilian authorities is costing lives,” MSF international president Christos Christou said on Thursday, after the death toll in Brazil reached 362,000.
MSF CEO Meinie Nicolai directly blamed Brazilian right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro, who, like former US President Donald Trump, downplayed the pandemic and his own fight with COVID-19. which caused many to take deadly risks by not believing the virus to be so dangerous. or as contagious as science proves.
“There is no coordination in the response. There is no real recognition of the severity of the disease. Science is set aside. False news is distributed and health workers are left alone, “Nicolai said.” The government is failing the Brazilian people. All Brazilians can tell you that they have people around them who have been buried or intubated in places where there is no drugs or oxygen. That is unacceptable. “
Lack of medical supplies joins resistance from government officials even to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. The P1 variant first identified in Brazil has caused international concern and is now believed to be mutating. France blocked all flights from the country and other countries are discouraging all but essential travel to the besieged South American nation.
The lack of adequate medical supplies is now linked to a disastrous deployment of vaccines based on both denial and corruption. Only 12% of the Brazilian population has received a first dose of the Chinese vaccine Coronavac, which Chinese officials recently admitted is not very effective in preventing people from suffering from serious illnesses.
Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Roraima opened an investigation after reports surfaced that rogue health workers were exchanging less effective doses of the Chinese vaccine, which is mainly what is currently being offered in the country. for illegally mined gold. A defender of the indigenous tribes that own the land where the gold is mined said health workers vaccinated clandestine miners under cover of nightfall, according to Reuters. “The Yanomami have long complained that materials and medicines destined for indigenous health are diverted to wild cat miners,” the local leader said in a letter seen by Reuters.
More Brazilians die every day than anywhere else in the world, with the country recording 3,560 deaths on Thursday alone. Brazil’s health ministry is currently in talks with Spain and other countries to try to get the necessary supplies to crowded hospitals. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro continues to fight regional governments that have tried to order masks or institute closures.