The number of Covid 19 patients is increasing and increasing – in many countries there is insufficient capacity to provide medical care to everyone. In particular, there is a lack of ventilators that are vital for lung disease. In some countries, doctors therefore have to decide which patients to send such a device to and which cannot be cared for.
An old woman from Belgium voluntarily did without a ventilator. 90-year-old Suzanne Hoylaerts had Covid-19 and was in mortal danger. Nevertheless, she asked the doctors not to connect her to a ventilator, reports the Belgian newspaper "Het Laatste Nieuws". Her daughter told the newspaper that her mother did not want artificial respiration. Suzanne Hoylaerts died the day after her admission to the hospital on March 21st.
Coronavirus: 90-year-old dies after refusing artificial respiration
"Give it to the younger ones," she said to the intensive care unit staff. Despite her old age, the elderly woman was still very sprightly and lived independently, her daughter reported. Some time ago, however, she had lost her appetite and complained of breathing problems – both typical symptoms of Covid-19.
Suzanne Hoylaerts' daughter took her to the hospital, where a coronavirus test was positive. Hoylaerts was already weakened by pneumonia from last year. She died in the hospital just a few days after the first symptoms.
Since there was a risk of infection, the daughter was not allowed to visit her mother in the past few hours. "I couldn't say goodbye and I can't even go to her funeral," she said "Het Laatste Nieuws". But she remembers the last words her mother said to her before she was isolated in the intensive care unit: "You mustn't cry. You did everything you could. I had a good life."
Source: "Het Laatste Nieuws" / "NZ Herald"
This article was originally published on stern.de.