Corona patients in the ICUs are slightly sicker, but shorter: from 21 days in the first wave to 15 days in the second wave. The chance of death has also decreased, from 30 to 20 percent.
This is evident from a report by the National Intensive Care Evaluation Foundation (NICE), which keeps track of and analyzes all figures. Intensivist at the Amsterdam UMC and chairman of the Dave Dongelmans foundation would like to make a comment. The fact that the patients are shorter means that we can treat more patients with the same number of beds. “And that the chance of death has decreased is great, but how many corona patients leave the hospital alive? If you look at the hospital mortality of IC patients, it has not decreased yet.”
More than 30 percent of the covid patients in the ICUs are younger than 60 years. “The picture is that there are mainly elderly people in the ICU, but there are also many younger patients,” says Dongelmans.
According to the doctor, the greater chance of surviving IC is because there is more knowledge about the disease. “We have better medicines and we know better how to treat the patients.”
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The figures also show that fewer corona patients are on artificial respiration. In the first wave, half was on artificial respiration, which has now dropped to 30 percent. In the first 24 hours of admission, 60 percent are now on ventilation, compared to 80 percent during the first wave.
Where during the first wave a quarter of the total number of covid patients in hospitals was in the ICU, this is now about a fifth. There are now more covid patients in the regular wards.
Fit people
The chance of survival decreases with age, NICE figures show. Between the ages of 55 and 60, the risk of death is about twice as high as under 50. “We still don’t know why some people get so sick and others don’t. We also don’t know why fit people can end up in IC”, Dongelmans says.
Jan-Willem Tellegen, a sporty man of 44 years, ended up in the IC for five days. “I tried to text my girlfriend: tell my children that I love them.”
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‘I eat healthy and am 44, not exactly an old man’
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