Just saw an article and video, showing how a cardboard manufacturing plant in Colombia is making beds for COVID hospital patients, that (if needed) can convert to a coffin within seconds.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/14/watch-cardboard-…
I'm impressed by the ingenuity of the design, and it helps out some families that can't afford wooden coffins, at the same time minimising hospital staff risks.
Of course, but the bed can be re-used for other patients, with a lower risk of the virus on the components.
Lower the cost by printing Ads on the Cardboard.
(Inside and Outside).
Yeah great idea, would be quite popular with funeral parlours to place their Ads.
you might even get paid for the ads
Only 99.99% of them!
Other wise this should be standard equipment in hospitals anyway, :)
It seems a bit silly to me. The overwhelming majority of patients who go to hospital recover and are discharged.
The virus remains on metal longer than on cardboard, so it can be re-used (as a bed) multiple times.
That reason alone is probably worth the innovation, but in this case the shortage of beds (and coffins) is a driver as well.
Metal can be simply disinfected within a few minutes and reused. Try doing that with cardboard.
Yes (if beds are available).
This also reduces the risks for hospital staff in moving the deceased.
The virus remains on metal longer than on cardboard, so it can be re-used (as a bed) multiple times.
Reusing a cardboard bed? That doesn't sound like a very good idea…
Did you read the story / watch the video?
@p1 ama: It wouldn't feel like a Sheraton bed, but in a hospital that is short of beds, a patient that is in a near-critical condition and intubated and sedated probably wouldn't mind.
in a hospital that is short of beds
Well yes, sure, if you're short of beds, then anything is better than no beds.
Would suit China in those regions that "just happen" to have higher rates of mortality and random disappearances …
Not very confidence inspiring if you rock up to hospital and they say " Ah, yes, we have decided you need one of these special beds"
Most patients going into ICU don't know much about it.
Lol i agree
Very innovative. Kind of like those food containers, that can go from the freezer to the microwave without thawing.
LOL, I want one if I ever go to hospital. Could fold it into the coffin shape before people come visit me.
No chance. People will get mad.
It is already in use.
Does the ones in use have a mattress, linen and pillows? Looks very uncomfortable.
I'd normally write "please post as a bargain" but the maximum weight capacity of 150kg would limit its appeal on ozbargain.
At 150kg it could easily hold hubby, daughter and I all at once
I sincerely hope it doesn't need to
I'd prefer a cardboard box instead of my family having to spend a lot of money on a wooden box that's going to be burnt soon after.
Same. I don't know why people bother spending big on burial stuff. Hell I don't care if they just throw my body into the local zoos tiger enclosure, I love tigers and would be happy that it was at least a bit useful (after my organs are collected for medical transplants of course).
What a shame. I'm sure your organs would be delicious. I'm thinking fried AdosHouse liver served with fava beans and washed down with a nice chianti.
Nah nah nah, I'm half Sri Lankan, so a good curry would be better.
@AdosHouse: Cruelty to Tigers.
There is surely some Tigers rights group, which will object to this on the basis fresh is best.
@RockyRaccoon: Well they can be chucked in live with my corpse and we will see if the tigers have a preference.
@RockyRaccoon: Just picture some tigers having a case of the runs… and I don't mean the Tamil Tigers
edit: ah, someone beat me to it :(
Sweet. Ship me to China and tell them they can have their virus back.
can you crouch kick them for me
Hmmm, the way people who pass away in hospital are moved through the hospital to the ward is hidden here though. You'll never see a dead person or a coffin being wheeled through the hospital because they're placed into a specially designed bed that is lower than the regular kind, which has a false top, so it looks like an empty bed is being transported through the hospital. I hope we never, ever wind up in a place where hospital beds double as coffins.
Hell know on so many leavely do you want them age care home sleep in cardboard box every until one day they died hell know them people are well just number too some they some grandmother some mum and dad some partner. them death number still people. i personally lost someone over COVID-19
Um OK…?
I'd feel pretty crappy if my hospital bed was a coffin. Not much hope for me doc?
I read this today as well in the "main" media outlets.
I thought it was just a bad joke.
Sick people with "bursting" fluids through various body openings and cardboard don't mix well.
Cardboard and dead bodies don't mix well.
Dripping/decaying corpses don't storage well in cardboard.
Corpses in morgues and cardboard don't mix well.
Transporting corpses in cardboard boxes is not a good idea. Think very fat (dead) people.
If there are no coffins, what is wrong with wrapping in clothes and then to the ground.
I still think it is just a bad joke or trying to sell beds at lower prices with the "coffin" novelty.
Cremation should be first preference imo. Cardboard burns well too.
More cardboard equals more ashes, Ashes to clean, to wipe to clog crematoriums.
It gets worse by the minute …
and more co2
If the fact that the bed doubles as a coffin is known by the patient, there is likely to be a reverse-placebo effect on the patient's health.
In this experimental study(n=194) published in Nature, evidence strongly suggests that there is some sort of socially transmitted placebo effect, where the expectations of the health care practitioner does in fact affect the treatment process.
So, if expectations seem to be low - e.g. putting the patient into a cardboard coffin bed first, the patient is able to infer from that, and other contextual clues, that the health care system has determined their rate of survival to be low and hence their own belief in their survival will also be lowered (placebo effects from a patient's own expectations are well documented).
If you think human life has value and they deserve dignity and respect and should not be boxed up in a coffin as soon as they go to seek treatment then no, this is not an innovative idea, it's plain degrading.
If you think humans are just a cog in a massive economic machine and ready to be boxed up and packed away as soon as they outlive their usefulness in this big brother esq era then yea a very nice and innovative idea and will make some corporation very rich.
I for one would not want that for myself. Makes me sick thinking about it.
It’s just a temporary solution to an out of control problem. You hear refrigerated trucks being converted to morgues due to the large numbers.
Unfortunately dignity and respect for human life are no longer valued.
Think about the homeless, in particular in Australia.
Euphemistically called "rough sleepers" as if when being awake is not rough for them.
It is repugnant but it is happening.
This might be useful in an extreme situation where deaths were in the tens to hundreds of millions and we couldn't handle that many corpses.
Otherwise, it's just an insensitive design which is disrespectful to the patients. I hope it never comes to using something like this
This is not impressive, this is revolting.
But… some Patients recover and are Discharged.