Guest guest Posted April 27, 2003 Report Share Posted April 27, 2003 April 28,2003 Dear Listmembers, Talking about a 'patient centered 'approach rather than a 'disease centered approach' to SARS , I just read this artcle from today's online Hongkong Standards and decided to pass it on to everyone. Regards, Rey Tiquia Brush with death Cannix Yau Early in February, a pneumonia scare in Guangdong caused panic among thousands of mainlanders. The news caused some ripples in Hong Kong as well, but 35-year-old nurse Lo Ying-fung was merely amused. Working in Kwong Wah Hospital's emergency ward, Lo read the various stories with mild interest and laughed at reports that villagers had snapped up supplies of white vinegar with which to disinfect their homes. Optimistic and carefree by nature, Lo never imagined for one moment that the events in Guangdong would have a deadly replay in Hong Kong. It was not until February 22 - when Professor Liu Jianlun of Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hospital in Guangzhou was admitted to Kwong Wah's emergency ward - that she raised the alarm. Liu, who had attended to some patients affected by this mysterious viral pneumonia strain, had actually alerted the hospital that he might have contracted the disease. But it was weeks before Liu was identified as the index patient who turned Hong Kong into a city of face masks and set off one of the biggest global epidemics in decades. A day before he went to hospital, Liu was at Metropole Hotel in Mong Kok where he apparently infected six other people who, in turn, took the disease to Prince of Wales Hospital and other world destinations. Lo said she was already taking precautions when minding other patients in the same ward. She wore gloves and a surgical mask, and she never touched Liu who was transferred to her hospital's intensive care unit several hours later. Having taken such precautions, the last thing she expected was that she too would fall victim to the mystery virus. ``At that time, I just told my colleagues to be more careful,'' she recalled. Two days later, Lo started to have a fever. She was admitted to the emergency ward for chest examinations on three separate occasions, but none of these indicated there was anything wrong with her. However, on February 28, she was finally admitted to hospital as her condition worsened. The fever continued and she kept vomiting. Doctors treating her did not have a clue as to what was wrong. Nor did Lo herself suspect that she had contracted the killer virus from Liu. Lo was merely treated for bird flu and given steroid injections. But, three days later, her condition worsened and she began experiencing breathing difficulties. Her oxygen saturation level had plunged to a very low mark, so low in fact that Lo had to take a respirator with her when she went to the toilet. It wasn't until she started receiving the ``cocktail'' treatment of ribavirin and steroids on March 6 that her condition improved. On March 17, Lo was discharged from hospital and she became the first to donate her blood serum to be used to treat those patients who did not respond to the cocktail drug. Throughout her ordeal, Lo said the possibility that she could die never struck her. She said the only time she felt some anxiety was the first three days when she was not responding to treatment. ``I never thought I would die because I believed that my condition was not so bad,'' she said. ``But I do appreciate the fact that no one told me Professor Liu had died on March 4 as the news could have affected my confidence and probably my treatment.'' While Lo remained confident she would recover, she felt some of her friends and colleagues thought otherwise. ``I noticed that one day when my colleagues called to see me, they had tears in their eyes. I felt they thought I would pass away at any time.'' Lo said that, throughout the ordeal, she learned that a strong will, unshakeable faith and positive thinking were important factors in combating any disease. She has also learned to be more patient with patients. ``I now tell other patients that they must battle hard to fight this disease. A strong will is very important and they must never lose faith. In the past, I was quite a restless person. But now I know how sick people feel. And I now realise that patience on our part is what patients really need.'' 28 April 2003 / 01:54 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 28, 2003 Report Share Posted April 28, 2003 Does anyone remember reading last year an abstract about patients w/ drug resistant TB being treated w/ a combination of meds and berberine? The berberine reduced antibiotic resistance and improved outcome. I wondered if this type of strategy was being use now. Cara April 28,2003 Dear Listmembers, Talking about a 'patient centered 'approach rather than a 'disease centered approach' to SARS , I just read this artcle from today's online Hongkong Standards and decided to pass it on to everyone. Regards, Rey Tiquia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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