How can you tell if a novel coronavirus infection can cause a life-threatening situation? How to choose between staying at home and going to the hospital? When should we go to the hospital?
Professor Fang Xiangshao from the Department of Emergency Medicine of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University gives his interpretations.
These six groups of people are at high risk of COVID-19 infection
People who are:
1. Over 60 years old;
2. Having cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, chronic lung diseases, diabetes, chronic liver and kidney diseases, tumors, and other underlying diseases;
3. Having immune deficiency;
4. Obesity (body mass index≥30);
5. Third trimester and perinatal women;
6. Heavy smokers.
According to Professor Fang Xiangshao, if the above six groups of people are infected with COVID-19, they are potentially severe patients and need special observation.
Three methods to identify whether to go to the hospital or not
For mild-type COVID-19 patients, going to the hospital will spend a lot of time queuing up and will add to the resource pressure on medical treatment. So how do you know if you need to go to see a doctor?
Symptom 1: Pay attention to whether patients are lethargic, with bad appetite, and whether they can answer the questions correctly. Be careful with the urine volume. A normal urine volume should be at 1000 to 2000 milliliters per day. If less than 400 milliliters, it means oliguria. If less than 100 milliliters, it means anuria. Individuals should be sent to the hospital immediately if any of the above symptoms have appeared.
Symptom 2: Pay attention to whether there is a shortness of breath. The normal respiratory rate is about 15 to 20 breaths per minute. If the respiratory rate is more than 30 breaths per minute, it indicates respiratory distress and the individual should be sent to the hospital as soon as possible.
Symptom 3: If there is a fingertip pulse oximeter at home, people can examine their Oxygen saturation and pulse rate. For healthy adults, the normal level of oxygen saturation should be close to 100%. For elder people, it should be higher than 92% to 93%. People should pay close attention when the oxygen saturation is between 88% and 92%. If it is lower than 88%, it means an obvious hypoxia, which requires an oxygenator and close attention. If the individual's condition doesn't get better or even becomes worse, he/she should be sent to the hospital.
Medical staff members use "ABCD" to evaluate the severity of symptoms
When COVID-19 patients get to the hospital, the doctors will examine their temperature, respiratory rate, pulse, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. Treatment will be applied according to the different severity of the symptoms.
Fang Xiangshao said that the "ABCD" method is the golden rule for emergency doctors to identify the criticality of patients, and it is a set of strict and scientific evaluation processes.
A (Airway)
B (Breathing)
C (Circulation)
D (Disability)
Priority will be given to patients who have any one unstable indicators among the "ABCD".
Fang stressed that we need to be highly vigilant when it comes to high-risk patients that are prone to severe illnesses, and make reasonable judgments on the severity in a timely manner.
Author | Hannah, He Yang (intern)
Editor | Wing, Nan, Will, Jerry
