'Almost a death sentence': How Wisconsin doctors, peers are rethinking ventilators for coronavirus

[TexasTowelie]

COVID-19 patients experience many symptoms: Fever, chills, muscle pain, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, cough. But one of the biggest concerns for Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer at UW Health, is shortness of breath.

“If you’re going to get in trouble with COVID-19, it’s going to be based on your inability to breathe,” Pothof said.

For some COVID-19 patients, the disease can look like Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or ARDS, a life-threatening condition in which fluid builds up in the lungs. Mechanical ventilators offer one way to treat those symptoms, and some hospitals have used them often as COVID-19’s epicenter shifted from China to Europe to the United States.

Pothof is among experts who say the jury is still out about how effectively ventilators treat COVID-19, particularly for patients with less severe symptoms.

Read more: https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/health-med-fit/almost-a-death-sentence-how-wisconsin-doctors-peers-are-rethinking-ventilators-for-coronavirus/article_adfc823e-d86d-5619-8ebd-75bb34fdde97.html