General Discussion
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(10,053 posts)LisaM
(27,800 posts)In two days, to rescue the kids trapped in a cave.
That guy bugs me; he craves adulation as much as Trump does.
Hekate
(90,633 posts)dweller
(23,625 posts)✌🏼
Make7
(8,543 posts)March 27, 2020
The limited supply of ventilators is one of the chief concerns facing hospitals as they prepare for more COVID-19 cases. In Italy, where hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients in respiratory failure, doctors have had to make difficult life-or-death decisions about who gets a ventilator and who does not.
In the U.S., emergency plans developed by states for a shortage of ventilators include using positive airway pressure machines like those used to treat sleep apnea to help hospitalized people with less severe breathing issues.
While that measure could stretch the supply of ventilators and save lives, it has a major drawback. Officials and scientists have known for years that when used with a face mask, such alternative devices can possibly increase the spread of infectious disease by aerosolizing the virus, whether used in the hospital or at home.
Indeed, that very scenario may have contributed to the spread of COVID-19 within a Washington state nursing home that became ground zero in the United States. First responders called to the Life Care Center of Kirkland starting Feb. 24 initially used positive airway pressure machines, often known as CPAPs, to treat residents before it was known the patients were infected with COVID-19.
...
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/27/822211604/cpap-machines-were-seen-as-ventilator-alternatives-but-could-spread-covid-19
babylonsister
(171,054 posts)tell a minion to look into it? Wow. Not too savvy of a businessman.
Ms. Toad
(34,059 posts)Some BiPAP machines can be configured to run as ventilators.
The key issue, Finigan said, is how the device connects to the patient. Ventilators require a breathing tube and operate as closed systems with a filter that traps any pathogens. Face masks generally used on CPAPs or BiPAPs allow air to escape, pumping the virus into the surroundings and potentially infecting other patients, caregivers or anyone nearby.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/27/822211604/cpap-machines-were-seen-as-ventilator-alternatives-but-could-spread-covid-19
(Don't know whether these fit the bill, or not)
yonder
(9,663 posts)but my RN wife says the pressure is not high enough nor would it work the same (no intubation or forced breathing). The maximum pressure of my APAP machine is about 20cm of H20 which might be enough for an infant. I understand an adult would require several hundred cm of H2O.
Still, if push came to shove, I wonder if it could provide some assistance for breathing problems in an emergency.