A patient with decades of well-managed diabetes has coronavirus symptoms and dies of lung failure within a week of being admitted to the hospital. What are the odds the diabetes was the cause? Close to zero.
-
-
Show this thread
-
A patient with cancer and an estimated one year to live gets coronavirus symptoms and dies from lung failure within one week of being admitted to the hospital. What was the cause of death? Probably not cancer alone, unless the cancer was in the lungs.
Show this thread -
A man with a spear in his chest goes to the ER and also seems to have coronavirus symptoms. He dies within the hour from loss of blood. Does that get coded as a coronavirus death? I'm thinking probably not.
Show this thread -
My point is that while it might seem logical that one can't know for sure the cause of death in a patient with multiple potential causes, the reality is that doctors can be 95% sure just by the timing and specifics of the situation. Would any ER doctor like to weigh in on this?
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Now do heart attack.
-
Ask an ER doc if they can tell the difference most of the time.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
Patients in hospice with a few days to live...
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
Unusual for you, you seemed to cherry-pick examples which fit the narrative - there are many other examples like a patient with advanced cancer who also had coronovirus being labeled as a coronavirus death. I can "make up" examples just like you
- Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.