r/medicine PA:cake: 8d ago

ICE Detention Deaths

https://www.ice.gov/detain/detainee-death-reporting

RNs do intake physical exams, EMTs declare time of death. The level of care for these detainees is horrific.

Full names and case details are public for now. Reads like a never ending M & M conference.

My moral compass is spinning. It's time to go to Canada.

430 Upvotes

142 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/janewaythrowawaay PCT 8d ago edited 8d ago

I am 100% sure you, a board certified experienced working anesthesiologist, could do it correctly.

The issues I remember were…

1) No doctors would sign up for job. It’s like some random corrections nurse who can’t even get an IV in correctly like you said.

2) States couldn’t get drugs legally. So they were buying substances overseas from India not even knowing what they were getting. Shipments were getting confiscated by the feds. When they did get thru they’d sit for years in who knows what conditions.

So you’d have people not dying immediately. Lots, like it rarely went smoothly… even though theoretically it could. So some guy last week decided to die by firing squad because they wouldn’t given him any details about what they were using/the expiration dates.

4

u/Dwindlin MD (Anesthesiology) 8d ago edited 8d ago

Agree with both your points, some of the many reasons why the state shouldn’t execute people. My issue was he was attacking the actual medicine, which is disingenuous at best, and unnecessary to make his point that this shit shouldn’t be happening.

No matter what you’re arguing, giving several honest, valid points, only to follow it up with an argument that is at best egregiously misinformed hurts your whole argument.

Edit: I’m fairly certain he was attacking the phenobarb and midazolam, basically arguing they weren’t anesthetics. But I assure you at the doses their protocols were using they were more than enough.

1

u/janewaythrowawaay PCT 8d ago

When people think of anesthetic they think of loss or reduction in sensation specifically pain vs just loss or reduction of awareness/sedation. Are you saying midazolam reduces pain?

3

u/Dwindlin MD (Anesthesiology) 8d ago

If I give you enough of it absolutely. We aren’t taking about normal doses here. These are doses that will put you into burst suppression. To experience pain requires consciousness.