Who gets the last ventilator? Facing the coronavirus, a hospital ponders the unthinkable
This is one in a series of reports from hospitals responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The patient was around 80, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, his medical record filled with the accumulations and erosions of old age. His blood pressure was high, his spinal cord narrowing to a pinch. He had a history of alcohol addiction, but was no longer drinking. A prostate cancer had been burned out with radiation, and he had yearly appointments to make sure it wasn’t coming back. He had type 2 diabetes.
