‘We had a patient and they wanted to shoot him in the head. (The bullet) entered one lung and came out the other’: 2.8 million hospital emergencies in Ecuador in first half of 2023 | Report | News

Acting quickly and realizing that every passing second counts in saving lives is what we’ve been doing. Alberto Campodónico, clinical intensivist Kennedy Clinic from Guayaquil.

Doctors receive patients, stabilize them, then they go to the intensive care unit, and if recovery goes well, they go to the inpatient area, which is when they leave the intensive care unit (ICU).

Of these surgeries, patients treated by Campodonico achieved Emergency room decompensation, heart attack, diverticulitis, acute colitis, brain hemorrhage, traffic accident injuries, stab wounds and gunshot wounds.

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“We had a patient and they tried to shoot him in the head. (The bullet) entered one lung and exited the other. Fortunately the patient is alive but in critical condition. In this case, the man is To leave the house, they shot him as he opened the guard door. They tried to shoot him in the head, but ended up shooting him in the chest. He managed to reach a gas station, where he passed out. He was taken to the clinic by taxi and we received him immediately and performed surgery on him,” said the doctor. He did not know the motive for the attack, adding that the man spent nearly 20 days in hospital.

Campodonico also treated citizens who had been stabbed, in which cases he would sew himself up to prevent heavy bleeding. “The first action is to go to the trauma room, check vital signs, and intubate him if necessary. For example, when pneumonia occurs, the situation is very serious. If respiratory failure occurs, you may have to intubate,” the doctor explained.

Unfortunately, not everyone survived and it was difficult for doctors to communicate with their families. “You always hope the patient can move on. It’s very sad to deliver such news to the family.”he insisted.

Like Campodonico, many more experts have experienced a range of emotions in the country’s emergency rooms, from happiness at saving a life to dashed hopes as patients die.

According to the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), Between January and July 2023, the number of emergency services calls in the MSP network exceeded 2.8 million, an increase of 8.6% from the 2.6 million calls in the same period in 2022.

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There was an increase in emergency room visits, including 1.7 million are women and 1.1 million are men.

The main cause is acute nasopharyngitisInflammation of the entire mucosa of the nasal cavity and throat. During the six months, there were 267,954 patients.

Another disease is Acute tonsillitis, 205,570 users in emergency; 203,222 visits for gastroenteritis; for abdominal pain They were 170,999; 86,909 women due to false childbirth.

There were 36,206 cases of gastritis and duodenitis, 35,434 cases of hypertension, 33,718 cases of head trauma, and 3,577 cases of accidental trauma.

José Luna, Professor, Uisek School of Health Sciencesshowing an increase in emergency room visits due to viral illnesses and suggesting this is due to resistance to the flu vaccine.

“This is a slightly more complicated issue because in order for emergency room care to be more efficient, we need to adequately handle emergencies,” Luna said.

He added that some people go to the emergency room for ailments that can be treated elsewhere, and the space is for those in urgent need of care.

“Patients must realize that the flu, common cold, allergy problems, or urinary tract infection are not emergencies. You go to an outside consultation,” Luna emphasizes.

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Likewise, a doctor who works in the emergency room of a hospital in Quito insists that a lack of medical supplies and professionals, as well as overloaded work in the public health network, hampers the coverage of emergency response capacity, which is constantly being enhanced.

At the national level, Martin Icasa General Hospital in Los Rios is the hospital with the most registered emergencies, with 65,814 patients; followed by the Cisne II Health Center in the outskirts of Guayaquil with 51,831 people.

It is followed by the Calderon Teaching Hospital in Quito, with 43,639 people receiving care, and the Bastión Popular Maternal and Child Health Center in Guayaquil, with 42,584 people receiving care.

Last Monday, September 4, Catalina Ruiz was in despair outside the emergency area of ​​the Montesina General Hospital in Guayaquil because she did not know that her 20-year-old daughter, who was seven months pregnant Madeleine Conform’s health. . Her daughter has asthma and the day before she started having shortness of breath. “He was drowning,” his mother said.

Since they lived in Tulane, she was taken to a public health center in the state, but they referred her to Mount Sinai. “They sent her here because they didn’t have the necessary equipment to get her pregnant. The baby was underweight and very small and they couldn’t intervene. (The baby’s heartbeat was very low, and (at Tulane) they didn’t have the necessary equipment to monitor her, ” said Catarina), who wanted to see her daughter, who was in the intensive care unit.

Madeleine’s father, Faustino Conform, said Madeleine was rushed to the hospital where they evaluated her and then she went to the intensive care unit. He has not heard from his daughter since.

However, in the afternoon, her mother finally saw Madeleine from a distance. That same day, he had to buy an asthma inhaler, which he spent $28 on, because he didn’t have one. The next day they asked for diapers.

The parents blame the costs because they don’t have the resources and they just want their daughter, who has improved, to leave the nursing home.

Ministry of Health data Research shows that women aged 20 to 39 visit ER at a higher rate, with 655,670 visits as of July. The range between 40 and 64 years old is also large, with 304,056 women. There are fewer men: 210,123 and 277,342 between 20 and 39 years old.

For Luna, the fact that women are more balanced is due to the biology of their menstrual and hormonal cycles.

“Over the course of evolution, they are more susceptible to viral illnesses. Hormone levels affect the body’s ability to repair and its inflammatory response to viral invaders. So women may have more severe symptoms for these biological reasons. And It’s a fact that women are more likely to seek medical care. Men are expected to live with the symptoms. There are biological and cultural factors to this bias toward women,” Luna believes. (Yo)