Sudden deaths at home increase | Ontario Chief Coroner calls for an inquiry

Colin Perkel
The Canadian Press

Experts have not yet determined why patients who do not appear to be seriously ill suddenly turn worse, Dirk Heuer said in an interview.

“They don’t have severe symptoms and usually people have to go to the hospital,” Huer said.

Between 1^Is And on April 22, coroners saw 25 cases of people dying from coronavirus disease in southern and central Ontario. The victims were over 80 years old in their late twenties.

Although the increase in the number of household deaths is unquestionable – the Chief Coroner has not been able to calculate the increase and the figures are not yet available for half of the provinces – they are still very weak. Ontario reported 7,863 deaths from COVID-19 and 34 new deaths since the pandemic began on Friday. On an average, more than a dozen deaths occur every day, most of which occur in hospitals.

Coroners have not yet identified a common denominator for household deaths.

The obvious thing is, something different is going on. Patients who appeared stable and did not require hospital care suddenly saw their condition deteriorate.

“These are not situations where an ambulance can not reach. There is no call for an ambulance, ”Huer said.

A high percentage of infected patients were able to recover at home across epidemics, spare hospitals and intensive care units. Many large hospitals have set up advanced at-patient programs to allow for remote monitoring of disease progression.

Mr Huer said he was not trying to intimidate anyone by raising the issue of rising mortality. He said its main purpose was to highlight the severity of COVID-19 and to inform the public to choose more information.

“The important thing is for people to know and recognize the severity of the disease,” Huer said. “Even though it’s limited information, I think it’s important for people to have that perspective.”