A Closer Look At Respiratory Death

Lessons from an undisclosed NHS Trust

My mini study on hospitalisation of adult respiratory admissions to the emergency department of a sizeable UK NHS Trust has thrown up a fair few surprises, with very little sign of anything that would construe a pandemic proper, let alone a deadly one arising from a novel virus. There is simply no sign of anything extremely unusual happening apart from evidence of bed management issues that may well be a local or regional affair. It thus seemed a logical next step to consider in-hospital respiratory death in the hope of finding a SARS-COV-2 signal.

With this in mind I have been examining the range of 2,334 different diagnoses made at death (57,762 adult deaths in total) and categorising them into four main classes: acute respiratory conditions (e.g. respiratory failure); pneumonia & influenza (e.g. adenoviral pneumonia); acute bronchial conditions (e.g. acute bronchiolitis); and chronic respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma). The full listing amounts to 70 ICD10 classifications and is available upon request.

This morning I shall start crosstabulating these four categories against designated COVID status at death to see what we can see; thence to start plotting trends over time. I have no idea what I shall find but it promises to be an interesting ride – get the kettle on!