Doctors say ventilators cause more harm than good to coronavirus patients

The demands of ventilators have surged amid the ongoing global health crisis with major countries racing to secure more and more of the breathing machines. However, doctors are now warning against the use of the breathing machines to treat coronavirus patients saying that they were doing more harm than good. According to international media reports, many medical professionals have warned that the risk of using overly intrusive machines could be high.

Intrusive oxygen face masks or invasive ventilators require patients to have a tube inserted in their respiratory system to put in positive pressure and support their lungs in breathing. However, doctors are now recommending non-invasive ventilators that support breathing in the patient with the help of face masks, nasal masks, or a helmet usually with increased oxygen levels. Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus cases worldwide has gone up to 2,833,697. 

'COVID-19 didn't lead to respiratory problems'

According to an international news agency, not intubating coronavirus patients led to better results. A paper published by the American Thoracic Society, on March 30 stated that “COVID-19 did not lead to typical respiratory problems''. The researchers also argued that ventilating COVID-19 patients were not appropriate as their lungs were more elastic and working better than they would expect in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

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In a video posted earlier this month, Cameron Kyle-Sidell, a physician from New York in US said that he feared putting patients to ventilators adding that that hospitals in the US were "treating the wrong disease". He further said that ventilation would, in fact, lead to “a tremendous amount of harm to a great number of people in a very short time”. Meanwhile, a report published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly 90 per cent of COVID-19 patients hooked up to a ventilator in New York’s largest hospital system, Northwell Health, died anyway.

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