Inadequate exchange of o2 and co2 at the damaged sacks and a slow build up of co2 in the body. This leads to a cascade of side effects including the build up of lactic acid, kidneys and liver failure. Bacteria can build up in the lung and cause secondary infections and then sepsis. If the initial lung damage and fluid build up is so bad, you can die within a day due to simple suffocation. That’s why bed rest and early airway management is so important with this disease, and why people suddenly dropped dead in the streets. They were overtaxing themselves and their co2 levels rose so much, so rapidly that they died of sudden suffocation and or a heart attack due to ischemia brought on by hypoxia.
14 years ago my wife was in critical condition with Severe Acute Pancreatitis and the ventilator wasn’t getting enough air into her longs. The hospital switched to a then experimental ventilator for infants that gave shallow but rapid bursts of air and that did the trick until her lungs recovered.
[[Inadequate exchange of o2 and co2 at the damaged sacks and a slow build up of co2 in the body.]]
Do you think the person might go into a coma-like state where they aren’t aware they are suffocating? Or would it be so fast that the person is fully aware that they are suffocating? Supposedly with pneumonia, a person slowly slips into unconsciousness and ‘passes quietly in the night’ without realizing they are suffocating to death- supposedly-