If the ventilators are causing high death rates isn't it really death by medical intervention rather then by the virus? TIME
Mechanical ventilators push oxygen into patients whose lungs are failing. Using the machines involves sedating a patient and sticking a tube into the throat. Deaths in such sick patients are common, no matter the reason they need the breathing help.Generally speaking, 40% to 50% of patients with severe respiratory distress die while on ventilators, experts say.
40 to 50 percent of patients on ventilators die. (generally speaking)
But 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines in New York City have died, state and city officials say.
80 percent or more. How many more coronavirus patients placed on ventilators have died is not stated, When I see the preceding stat of 40- 50 percent for non coronavirus patient dying, it seems realistic that the numbers of patients dying on ventilators may go as high as 90 percent. Quite possibly as high as 90 percent of patients with coronavirus, put on ventilators will die.
Higher-than-normal death rates also have been reported elsewhere in the U.S., said Dr. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer. And similar reports have also emerged from China and the United Kingdom. One U.K. report put the figure at 66%.
A very small study in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the disease first emerged, said 86% died.
But some health professionals have wondered whether ventilators might actually make matters worse in certain patients, perhaps by igniting or worsening a harmful immune system reaction. That’s speculation. But experts do say ventilators can be damaging to a patient over time, as high-pressure oxygen is forced into the tiny air sacs in a patient’s lungs.
“We know that mechanical ventilation is not benign,” said Dr. Eddy Fan, an expert on respiratory treatment at Toronto General Hospital.
“One of the most important findings in the last few decades is that medical ventilation can worsen lung injury — so we have to be careful how we use it.”
The dangers can be eased by limiting the amount of pressure and the size of breaths delivered by the machine, Fan said.
But some doctors say they’re trying to keep patients off ventilators as long as possible, and turning to other techniques instead.
“If we’re able to make them better without intubating them, they are more likely to have a better outcome — we think,” Habboushe said. He said those decisions are separate from worries that there are not enough ventilators available. (But that is a concern as well, Habboushe added.)
There are widespread reports that coronavirus patients tend to be on ventilators much longer than other kinds of patients, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt Universi
Experts say that patients with bacterial pneumonia, for example, may be on a ventilator for no more than a day or two.
But it’s been common for coronavirus patients to have been on a ventilator “seven days, 10 days, 15 days, and they’re passing away,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, when asked about ventilator death rates during a news briefing on Wednesday.
Seven, ten and 15 days is extremely long and extremely damaging for already compromised lungs.Sadly, some years back, we lost a family member (see comments) who had been placed on a ventilator for lung disease. There was no hope, but, it gave our family time to come to terms and say good bye. It was over in two days. And that's all there was. Nothing more.From earlier: