MULTI-ORGAN FAILURE
I remember working in the Emergency Room of a medium size hospital in South Florida just a few years ago. I recall the case of an elderly woman who arrived short of breath. The lady had smoked all her life and had developed a condition called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
She was weak, her blood pressure was low and she was frightened. Her kidneys were failing. She was immediately given I.V. fluids to raise her blood pressure, perfuse her kidneys and as a route to give her drugs for her breathing.
She told me: “I feel a strange heavy pressure in my chest”. I thought to myself, “She’s having a heart attack”. Within minutes she lost consciousness and was taken to the Intensive Care Unit. within three days she was dead.
The cause of death? Multi-Organ Failure. The woman’s heart and lungs, kidney and liver and also her brain– had stopped working. Her blood circulation had been too weak to carry oxygen and nutrients to all the hungry cells. She died.
EUROPE AND THE U.S.
The case of this woman in the South Florida hospital made me think of the economy of Europe and the U.S. This is the economy of The West. An economy united by strong historical ties and identical behavior patterns.
Like the old lady who had smoked too much, the people and the governments of the West had Borrowed too much. The old lady could not breath. The West cannot spend. The old lady’s blood pressure was low. The Western workers are unemployed. The old lady’s organs began to fail.
The banks, the stores, the farms, the factories and the local governments are beginning to fail. Her kidneys, her liver, her lungs and, eventually, her heart could not function. Greece, Spain, Portugal and most of the U.S. are desperate for financial help. Entire countries are being downgraded by the rating agencies.
Enormous corporations like BP are making horrendous errors. It is time to take the Economy of the West to the Intensive Care Unit. But there is none!
All we can do is wait for the Heart Attack.
