While the hospital may not run out of ventilators, they may have run out of ICU beds. The nurses on the regular floor where they are at are not trained to care for a vented patient.
If they are in the ER, and they are both vieing for the same ICU bed, keep in mind the ER is not the optimal place for such a high acuity patient.
This happens more often than not, trust me I know. If people knew how our hospitals were daily walking a tightrope of keeping people alive they would be outraged.
I don’t dispute anything you’ve said, but death panels are not the solution.
The Er in question would likely transfer one of them to a different hospital.