Caller · moment 8 of 20
When Doctors Have to Give Up on a Ventilated Patient
from Emergency Broadcast - Corona Call-Ins #2 · #2
2 min
Caller
John walks through how medical staff monitor a ventilated patient's blood gases, consider tracheostomies, and eventually have to make the grim call that a patient won't recover.
- Respiratory therapist explains how doctors monitor oxygen and CO2 levels to determine if a ventilated patient's body is healing
- Tracheostomy procedure: when extubation fails, doctors put a hole in the patient's neck to make breathing easier
- No fixed timeline for when to give up on a ventilator—the body's will to survive means each case varies
- How doctors tell patients and families they've exhausted all options and the disease is progressing beyond recovery
- Tim notes that people always compare COVID deaths to flu deaths, pointing out the comparison misses how different this crisis is