It looks like the effort of producing more ventilators to help positive Coronavirus patients survive the virus may not help them at all. According to studies, 80 percent of COVID-19 deaths in New York were all using mechanical ventilators. The same observations were also recorded in other states and countries. With that, some doctors are not sure if these machines still necessary, or is it just making the patients worse?
Study: No need for ventilator shortage, most COVID-19 patients don't need them
Fox News recently reported a distressing observation that most doctors have seen in Coronavirus patients. According to the report, ventilators may not really help patients in surviving from the virus-- in fact, it could even make their cases worse.
As said, New York-- that has the highest rate of positive COVID-19 patients in the United States-- recorded more deaths when doctors use ventilators to their patients. Closer to 80 percent dies in the city when they have ventilators on, said state officials.
Interestingly, New York is not the only place that ventilators are now less welcome. ABC News said that other states in the country also recorded 40 to 50 percent of Coronavirus deaths when using these kinds of machinery, as explained by Dr. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association's chief medical officer.
U.K. and China show higher chances of Coronavirus death when patients use ventilators
Not only the U.S. had the same ventilator dilemma, the United Kingdom and COVID-19's former epicenter China also had similar reports.
U.K. report said that 66% of their patients died while under the use of ventilators, and a very small study in Wuhan said that 86% also died in the same situation.
The reason why
There is still no definite reason why the cases of virus death increase more when using ventilators. Some say that patients could have been really sick when they were placed under the machine. Others say that the machine could have been the reason why patients experienced more difficulty in breathing.
"If we're able to make them better without intubating them, they are more likely to have a better outcome - we think," said Dr. Joseph Habboushe, an emergency medicine doctor who works in Manhattan hospitals.
Maingear develops a version of 1.5-second ventilators
Though some studies are now claiming that ventilators are not needed to cure COVID-19 patients, a lot of countries are still in need of more of these machines.
Due to this, Maingear, New Jersey-based computer manufacturer, has recently introduced its version of a ventilator that could help ease the shortage. The LIV uses an old version of its F131 PC case as the chassis and promises to deliver oxygen in as little as 1.5 seconds.
Unfortunately, Maingear is still getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to produce more of the LIV to be distributed in hospitals.
For now, it could take time.
