Posted on 09/23/2021 6:58:37 AM PDT by missamyb
I've been curious about this for a long time so I thought I would ask the smartest people I know. Last year my sister passed away from Cardiac Arrest due to pneumonia caused by being on the ventilator. I never had any experience with anything like this before and aside from the grief and Trauma I gained a lot of awareness I was ignorant to previously. Since covid started I have noticed a pattern that it really seems like a death sentence once you get on the ventilator for this disease. It occurred to me that a tracheostomy would be a better option. I then Googled my question the best I could and all I could find were a few Snippets to the effect of, because there are are blood aerosols involved with the trach it is not safe for doctors. I then thought to myself, surely in the year 2021 there has to be a way to protect doctors from blood aerosol considering this is a common procedure. I'm by no means a medical professional and I'm still somewhat ignorant but it is just a nagging question for me. Maybe there is another explanation along the lines of it wouldn't help the patient or something like that. Does anybody have any insight?
I haven’t yet watched the whole thing, but based upon what I heard in the first 5 minutes, you should watch this.
Covid patients are on ventilators because of problems with their lungs. A tracheostomy is just an intrusive way to bypass the windpipe/throat if it is obstructed. You’d still need a ventilator to help the lungs. Seems like a huge net negative to have to insert it via surgery instead of down the throat.
A hole in someone's throat does nothing to help. You do that when someone is choking on a food item. Those people still have fully working lungs.
Gas_dr is the expert on this, though, so I'll ping him.
By the way, the 95% ventilator death rate we saw early on in New York City and elsewhere is no longer as bad.
That was my first thought when I started getting curious about this because it would almost be too obvious so I Googled that and NHS says
If you’re unable to breathe unaided, the tracheostomy tube can be attached to a machine (ventilator) that supplies oxygen to assist with breathing to increase the flow of oxygen to your lungs.
Do you know what changed?
This makes sense to me. I might have a little bit of a skepticism problem
the vent breaths for you, it’s not just an airway
And a vent attached to a trach carries the same risks? I am hopeful I can put this issue to rest and cross it off the list of things that are making me lose faith in everything
A ventilator forces air into the lungs. It doesn’t matter which hole is used to access the lungs. The issue if the forced air. It seems they are using far too much force with the ventilators and damaging the patients’ lungs. A tracheotomy would simply result in a different entry point but the net result would be the same — too much forced air in the lungs from the ventilators. Seems like a lot more people would have been better off just being given oxygen with little or no force.
i would say yes they do
Tracheostomy is much better at removing secretions and providing pulmonary toilet (suctioning). So, it decreases pneumonia and superinfections with pulmonary disease over standard intubation. The persons question is legitimate. I don’t know the answer.
I read a paper on it shortly after having been on a ventilator.
My recollection is that ventilation is a procedure for assuring sufficient oxygen for a patient whose own breathing can’t do the job, either due to lack of breathing, inefficient lungs, or both.
The problem is that the environment created by the ventilator is highly conducive to the growth of bacteria. The paper I read itemized about a dozen ways in which the patient and his environment can be improved to reduce VAP.
The paper described one hospital’s efforts which reduced the incidence of VAP from much greater than 50% to much less than 50%. The challenge is that no single item will demonstrate the desired improvement. You have to do all of the recommendations and exercise great discipline to get the desired results. This makes it very difficult to solve this problem using a trial and error approach.
Seems like a lot more people would have been better off just being given oxygen with little or no force. <<<
I agree...and there is some medical theory to back that up...* *
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