The Coronavirus thread

Quote: RonC

Hopefully, folks will stay committed to social distancing....

Quote: SOOPOO

Let me explain 'ventilator patients' first. If someone comes in to the hospital with respiratory distress, doctors have a bunch of things to evaluate before deciding to intubate a patient, and thus put them on a mechanical ventilator.
1. How does the patient look? Is the patient complaining of difficulty breathing? Importantly, how much WORK is the patient putting in to breathing? I've many times in my career been called to evaluate a patient, working very hard to breathe, whose oxygen level is ok, whose CO2 level is ok, but I could tell that the patient would not be able to sustain the effort to keep breathing that hard. I'd say to the consulting doctor that if we don't intubate now we will in an hour or two.
2. Oxygen level---- if the lungs are not able to absorb oxygen at a sufficient amount, the ventilator can apply 'positive pressure' to 'squeeze more oxygen into the blood. If really bad, the ventilator can also apply positive pressure continuously not just with every actual breath it delivers. (Google PEEP)
3. CO2 level, and thus pH (acidity) are important factors. If you are not ventilating enough, the lungs don't get rid of the CO2 your body produces, and your blood becomes acidotic. Acidosis affects all your organs negatively. If you combine low O2, and high CO2, its a bad scene.

I'd say the "appear to be stable and then rather suddenly desaturate and die" would be an extremely rare situation. If someone is not dead already, meaning they were struggling to breathe when I was called, after intubation there would always be an improvement, at least temporarily. If the disease continues to accelerate the inability of the lungs to oxygenate and ventilate.... which is what causes most of the deaths..... But I'd be surprised if "suddenly" means minutes, not hours.

I have NO knowledge of specific deaths, but if there is some difficulty and/or delay in getting the breathing tube in, that could make the death more 'sudden'.

Remember, also, that there will be patients on the brink of getting a heart attack that now get COVID. Just a small decrease in oxygen level could cause the heart attack. To answer RonC, yes, that will be listed as a COVID death. Someone on home oxygen before this pandemic gets COVID and dies pretty quickly, will be a COVID death. The person probably was DNR and any minor lung issue would be enough to end his life.

I forgot to mention this, but some patients not doing well, but not bad enough to need to be intubated, basically can be helped by the equivalent of a CPAP machine that helps sleep apnea patients. The technique will likely save thousands of people from needing to be intubated.

Quote: terapined

Not happening in Tampa. The local right wing religious mega church still holding services for huge crowds yesterday
. They all watched Fox last month and still believe that this virus is an anti Trump hoax

Quote:

...number of religious communities, specific churches and specific synagogues, are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance even though it’s so widespread," the New York Democrat said...

Quote: terapined

Not happening in Tampa. The local right wing religious mega church still holding services for huge crowds yesterday
. They all watched Fox last month and still believe that this virus is an anti Trump hoax

Quote: SOOPOO

Anti-Trump? If anything it is pro-Trump. All his ratings up since the crisis started, despite the availability of a small book of incorrect statements he has made.

A far as the church..... since we allow such things (churches, religion), if you believe in God and an afterlife, it is LOGICAL to keep going to church. If you get the disease and die, it must have been God's will, anyway. They always say 'he is going now to a better place...'

Quote: kenarman

By that logic there is no point in running from a church if some terror group is shooting it up.

Quote: SOOPOO

Correct.

It never made sense to me all the sorrow at a funeral where the priests, family members, friends are all saying the deceased is now in a better place. If that were true, there shouldn't be sorrow.

Quote: fleaswatter

Well, well, well, looks like President Trump was right again!!!!!