A New York City study has found that 88% of 2,600 patients who had Covid-19 and were put on ventilators died. The study examined outcomes for Covid-19 patients who were admitted between March 1 and April 4 to 12 hospitals in New York City and Long Island that are part of the Northwell Health System. When you have a very bad case of Covid-19 it feels like you are drowning, only you are drowning in the fluid in your own lungs.
Overall, the researchers reported that 553 patients died, or 21%. But
among the 12% of very sick patients that needed ventilators to breathe,
the death rate rose to 88%. The rate was particularly awful for patients
over 65 who were placed on a machine, with just 3% of those patients
surviving, according to the results. Ventilators involve inserting a breathing tube into the windpipe so a
ventilator can pump air into the lungs. The danger of this method of treatment is that it can do possible harm to the lungs.
As a result, some doctors are questioning their use in Covid-19 patients,
and have been trying to find methods for keeping Covid-19 patients
off them when possible. Doctors at the University of Chicago Medicine are seeing “truly
remarkable” results using high-flow nasal cannulas (HFNC) rather than
ventilators and intubation to treat some COVID-19 patients. HFNCs, are non-invasive nasal prongs that sit below the nostrils and
blow large volumes of warm, humidified oxygen into the nose and lungs. Dozens of COVID-19 patients who were in respiratory distress were given HFNCs instead of putting them on ventilators. Only one patient then had to be put on a ventilator. The HFNCs are often combined with prone positioning, a technique where patients lay on their stomachs to aid breathing. This treatment does have risks in that the air being blown into the nostrils can also cause the Covid-19 virus to go air born in the hospital room. Staff have to have the best personal protective equipment to stay safe themselves.
However not all the news is bad. Nurse Taylor Campbell told a heart warming tale of a patient on a ventilator who had been unresponsive, but then squeezed her hand. She had been on the ventilator for 15 days. Taylor had talked to the woman every day. Since the woman was unresponsive she wasn’t sure she was being heard, but the talked calmly to the woman anyway. The worst thing about having the virus is that you have to be separated from friends and family. On this day the woman’s grip was stronger that usual and she would not let go. She was extubated that afternoon and Taylor held her hand the entire time. A few minutes later the woman mouthed the words, “I love you.” Taylor cried into her N95 mask as she held the woman’s hand. A minute later the woman was able to speak the words. Taylor asked if she had heard what she had said to her over the last 15 days, and the woman heard every word.
Yesterday I saw a chart that showed the overall number of new cases in
America starting to level off from it’s meteoric rise. Of course that
does not mean the crisis is over. It might level off for some time
before the numbers start to drop. Then the rate of decline become
important. Before we can return to a new normal, there has to be massive
testing and tracking to be sure work places are safe. They have found
that the air born virus can travel much further than at first though. It
can attach to a tiny pollution particle and re main in the air for 30
minutes. The 6 foot cushion is not enough. That cushion should be more
like 30 feet.
The United States is fast approaching One Million cases at 987,160 with 55,413
deaths.