Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Opinion Today: A 7-month-old’s fight for breath

There is a crisis unfolding inside overwhelmed hospitals.

By Alexander Stockton

Video Journalist, Opinion

In December, while reporting from a pediatric I.C.U. in Connecticut, I saw something that will be difficult to forget: a child whose lungs were failing.

Night had just fallen. A helicopter had landed on the roof, carrying the critically ill Theo Mazzarese from another hospital. He was wheeled in on a gurney, immobilized by hulking equipment.

As the nurses unwrapped him and removed the earplugs that protected him from the chopper's deafening roar, I could see that he was just a baby.

His tiny chest convulsed. He moaned incessantly. A respiratory virus was threatening to prevent Theo, who was 7 months old, from experiencing his first Christmas.

In an Opinion video published today, my colleague Lucy King and I tell Theo's story. We wanted to understand why a surge in respiratory illness is once again overwhelming the United States' health care system. Why is it that America seems trapped in this Groundhog Day scenario?

I've reported from inside I.C.U.s across the United States during almost every viral outbreak since the start of the Covid pandemic. Each I.C.U. I've visited has looked similar to the last: burned-out doctors, overworked nurses, an endless carousel of patients and not enough space for them.

This I.C.U. felt no different.

But unlike with past virus surges, the reason hospitals are currently stressed is not just because of an unprecedented number of patients but a decades-long trend that has eviscerated pediatric health care. Today's video examines the profit-driven motives behind this decline, why saving sick kids in America is bad business and what can be done to fix it.

There are changes the government can make to ensure that the health care system is more resilient. A start would be investing in pediatric critical care so that hospitals like the one I visited have the resources they need to handle virus surges without spreading medical professionals dangerously thin. Congress has even considered a bill that would do just that.

Will the U.S. government finally deliver much needed support to hospitals? Or in a few months will I find myself telling another tragic story from another overrun I.C.U.?

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