by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

This past weekend (April 5, 2020) Health Impact News published a video plea from a NYC physician treating COVID19 patients in the ER and ICU units, claiming that what he was seeing was that patients were doing worse when put on ventilators. He stated:

I am a physician who has been working at the bedside of COVID+ patients in NYC. I believe we are treating the wrong disease and that we must change what we are doing if we want to save as many lives as possible. I welcome any feedback, especially from those bedside: doctors, nurses, xray techs, pharmacists, anyone and everyone. Does this sound wrong or right, is something more right? Please let me know. @cameronks

In short, I believe we are treating the wrong disease, and I fear that this misguided treatment will lead to a tremendous amount of harm to a great number of people in a very short time… I feel compelled to give this information out.

COVID-19 lung disease, as far as I can see, is not a pneumonia and should not be treated as one.

We don’t know where we’re going. We are putting breathing tubes in people and putting them on ventilators and dialing up the pressure to open their lungs. I’ve talked to doctors all around the country and it is becoming increasingly clear that the pressure we are providing may be hurting their lungs. That it is highly likely that the high pressures we are using are damaging the lungs of the patients we are putting breathing tubes in… we are running the ventilators in the wrong way…. COVID-19 patients need oxygen, they do not need pressure.

See:

NYC Doctor in ER and Critical Care: Lung Injuries Caused by Ventilators – “We’re Treating the Wrong Disease!”

Yesterday, April 8, 2020, reporter Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press wrote an article stating that many doctors are now moving away from using these ventilators due to the “unusually high death rate” of those put on them.

His report was picked up by many of the large corporate “mainstream” media outlets. Stobbe reports that normally 40% to 50% of patients put on ventilators die, but with patients tested positive for COVID19 that number jumps up to 80%.

These mechanical ventilators are a huge business right now during the COVID19 crisis. President Trump forced General Motors to produce 30,000 of them and sell them to the government at “cost” for a reported $489 million.

Billing for services rendered to use ventilators in the hospitals is also very high, with non-surviving patients who need mechanical ventilator services ranging from $27,000–$39,000 per patient. (Source.)

Some doctors are moving away from ventilators to treat coronavirus patients. The reason: Unusually high death rates.

by Mike Stobbe – Associated Press
Chicago Tribune

Excerpts:

As health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can.

The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients.

The evolving treatments highlight the fact that doctors are still learning the best way to manage a virus that emerged only months ago. They are relying on anecdotal, real-time data amid a crush of patients and shortages of basic supplies.

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. But 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines in New York City have died, state and city officials say.

Read the full article at the Chicago Tribune.

UPDATE:

Del Bigtree covered this issue today as well on his show “HighWire”