The story of Andrés Prieto, the only critical care doctor in the region

medium sizeAgalanes is the region with the second lowest number of specialist doctors in the country. Nineteen specialties do not exist, and another 15 have only one professional who cares for the entire region’s population.

Dr. Andrés Prieto Cabrera is the only intensive care or critical patient medicine physician and bronchopulmonologist at Magellan Clinic. In addition, he is the head of the critical care unit.

Dr. Andrés Prieto was born and raised in Magellan. He immigrated to do specialist and subspecialty work and returned to Punta Arenas in 2020. Remember it was January 4th, it was a Sunday, and he went straight to work. He works there as an intensive care physician, and other leaders are also there, such as technical head Dr. Marco Báez and head of the responsibility center Dr. Christos Varnava.

That year, everything changed, especially in intensive care units. The epidemic disrupted everything. The number of patients increased and the need for additional intensive care beds was needed. This was one of thousands of emergencies that had to be dealt with.

Therefore, his presence as an expert is even more needed during this health crisis as many patients develop decompensation due to COVID-19-related respiratory failure. Later, Dr. Marco Báez moved to another region and Dr. Christos Varnava also changed services, so eventually Dr. Prieto took over as CR Director and Technical Director.

“It was a huge challenge because I came from a mid-level position at the Catholic University Clinical Hospital, where there were other headquarters, but here it was the first time I was responsible for a public service for critical patients and in a hospital as big as This hospital, the only one in the area, covers patients from Puerto Natales, Porvenir, Puerto Williams and sometimes even from neighboring countries like Argentina. So, of course, it’s a challenge and a kind of Stress, because I took over in December 2021 and I have been there since then until now,” said the expert, who thanked the nursing staff for their support in this work.

In this sense, he emphasized the work of the department’s charge nurse and the resident doctors who always stayed at the foot of the canyon.

“But, yes, it was difficult. We had a lot of workload in the beginning and sometimes we were assigned weekly shifts, but sometimes I was doing three shifts a week because we didn’t have an intensivist either and just to deal with the pandemic . And then we were physically and mentally exhausted. Now, in a way, things are calmer and I seem to enjoy my job more because I enjoy being in the hospital. Of course, people see it more here than at home I, but I love what I do, I love coming to the hospital, I love the critical care unit. The staff is very friendly, probably different from other places I’ve experienced critical care medicine,” the doctor said.

He assured that people in the area are very close and patients are “loyal” because many times they don’t want to be referred to other units because they feel they are well cared for and are being treated well in their own unit.

Department of Critical Care Medicine

Intensivists deal with highly serious conditions, including possible trauma or polytrauma, or patients with out-of-control surgery, or if there are some deficiencies in the ward, such as sepsis or other widespread infections that can happen to the patient and have serious consequences. of infection. Decompensation and life-threatening.

“Honestly, I would like to have two more intensivists to be able to distribute medical visits well. This also supports the fact that while we are getting a good review on UPC, it will help inpatients …the intensivist has a comprehensive understanding of the patient, so he manages to cover the patient from all aspects neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, surgery, etc. Unlike other specialists, we usually have to deal with multiple topics, while other specialists are usually more focused on one topic. We have to try to understand almost everything involved in the hospital profession,” he said.