Personally, I have been intubated twice for surgical procedures, but I was extubated just before being fully awakened. I do not remember being ventilated at all. My longest intubation was under 10 hours. In the Trauma Rooms there are often intubations because of concerns of asphyxiation. If a Patient comes in vomiting for example then intubation is often called for.
Simply being short of breath is not always a call for it. We have NIV (non invasive ventilation) or BiPAP. It is a great therapy though a lot of people will not tolerate it, too much anxiety. You cannot really sedate them because the person must be able to independently remove their mask at anytime. Aspiration while on BiPAP is very dangerous.
Most of my COVID+ Patients were ventilated. I must have had hundreds of them from early 2020 to almost mid 2021. In Units in my place, great numbers of suspected Covid Patients were tubed and placed on mechanical ventilation. We never call them ‘Respirators.’ Respiration is not ventilation, neither is Oxygenation. Some of the other Units I heard gave them Remdesivir, but I honestly don't know. One of my Nurse friends (actually a Nurse Practioner) was surprised to hear of Patients getting Remdesivir. He thought that it was highly irregular. To my knowledge, I never had one single Patient on it.
Lots of people were ventilated though. We ran out of ventilators. They finally shut down all ‘elective surgeries.’ This provided us with probably a couple dozen Anesthesia Ventilators. We then had vents all over the place.
As for intubation being a harsh procedure. I don't see it. I have been involved with literally hundreds of tubings. I never saw a single complication. This was an extremely routine thing. Of course some people do have unusual airway conditions, such as tracheal stenosis, fistulas, or a number of possibilities, always prepared for. The problem becomes with the vent settings. We tend to have what we refer to as ‘vanilla settings.’ Pretty straightforward stuff ordinarily. Once the Patient is settled, we assess the pressures in the lungs as well as blood pressure, heart rate, O2 Sats, and other vitals. Of course the Patient must be looked at and evaluated. We do not treat monitors but rather people. Almost immediately after ventilation commences an ABG is performed (Arterial Blood Gas) which helps determine ventilation and metabolic status. Ventilation tweaking usually commences following the ABG results.
I don't care if the Patient is 6 years old or 90. Ventilation is the Number 1 life function. If you are unable to ventilate, you will expire in scant minutes. I think that fellow in the video is not nearly as knowledgeable as he presents. Of course, I haven't a clue regarding his credentials. I did not look.
Pardon the pun..... but intubation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Had a good family friend that was more or less killed by an intubation.
Thank you for your reply.
Do you think most of the Covid patients you saw needed to be on a ventilator?
My mother was put on one years ago when she had pneumonia and never came off it. It was when H1N! was raging, but supposedly she never had that.
I wasn’t around when they put her on the ventilator. My father says they rushed into her room because all of a sudden her oxygen level was low but that she had never seemed to him to have trouble breathing or anything. She was acting normally and talking to him about something on the tv.