Quote:
Originally Posted by DRM08
I worry about what happens with our ventilator supply. There will be a ton of collateral damage in our health care system if we are not able to slow down this virus.
Many people need ventilator help for reasons unrelated to COVID-19. My dad needed ventilator help for about 48 hours a number of years ago. He made an amazing recovery, but the ventilator was very important for his survival in early hours of being in the hospital. His pulse was very low and he was losing a lot of blood, on his way to death. The ventilator played a critical role in helping him recover.
The situation with my dad is just one of so many examples out there that are happening every day in our health care system. We cannot afford to let COVID-19 become so widespread that it causes a bunch of collateral damage fatalities in the health care system due to a shortage of ventilators.
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When I was working in the ICU the average time on the vent was 37.5 hours. A little skewed because of post-op surgery when we will take them off the vent the next day but most patients that I took care of on the vents were like your Dad. They have a life threatening crisis for 48 hours. We take over his breathing for him. Get whatever caused this under control, take him off the vent. They go on with their lives.
Whats concerning me is the lack of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) in hospitals. I would have been fired immediately if I used the same mask or protective gown on a patient then used the same PPE when I went to a new patient. Walked me out the door. Put me in front of the board to explain myself. Potentially lost my license and career.
Now, you have people using the same mask for 5 days on every patient. Using sports googles, bandannas, scarfs, etc. What do you think is going to happen? The care givers are going to get sick. They will take the bug's home, infect their families. Get sick themselves and take out more of our nations available health care workers to help others battle this crisis.
The patients are going to possibly get every bug in the hospital. You don't have to work in the medical field to figure out whats going to happen due to a lack of PPE. More people are going to die that didn't need to if we don't get PPE into hospitals.