Why some doctors want to stop using ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic

Amid a global ventilator shortage during the coronavirus pandemic, some doctors are trying to find other ways to treat patients due to the high percentage of people who die while on ventilators, media outlets reported.

Around 40% to 50% of patients die on ventilators when they have severe respiratory distress but at least 80% of coronavirus patients put on ventilators in New York City have died, The Associated Press reported, citing state and city officials.

“We know that mechanical ventilation is not benign,” Dr. Eddy Fan, an expert on respiratory treatment at Toronto General Hospital told The AP. “One of the most important findings in the last few decades is that medical ventilation can worsen lung injury — so we have to be careful how we use it.”

Coronavirus can damage air sacs in the lungs, and doctors decide to put patients on ventilators when their “lungs are so damaged that a patient is not getting enough oxygen,” The New York Times reported.

A ventilator supports people with respiratory conditions by helping them breathe, The Guardian reported. Doctors will look for “respiratory failure” signs before putting someone on a ventilator, according to the news outlet.

Doctors are trying out different ways of treating patients, including having them lie in various positions, giving them oxygen through other devices, and adding nitric oxide to improve oxygen and blood flow to the lungs, according to The AP.

Dr. Tiffany Osborn, a critical-care specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine, told NPR that ventilators themselves can damage the lungs.

“The ventilator itself can do damage to the lung tissue based on how much pressure is required to help oxygen get processed by the lungs,” Osborn told NPR.

Dr. Negin Hajizadeh, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Hofstra/Northwell School of Medicine, in New York told NPR that coronavirus damages the lungs more than the flu.

“There is fluid and other toxic chemical cytokines, we call them, raging throughout the lung tissue,” she said.

Ventilators help support patients while the body tries to fight off the illness, USA Today reported. They won’t fix what’s wrong but doctors use them in a “last-ditch effort to keep patients alive,” according to USA Today.

“Ventilators aren’t really making any therapeutic contributions,” Ogbonnaya Omenka, an assistant professor and public health specialist at Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, told USA Today. “What they do in essence, is provide life support – and buy time for the patient.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Why some doctors want to stop using ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic."