The Headache associated with Ventilators

The Headache associated with Ventilators

The world is currently undergoing serious infection threats. COVID-19 is spreading fast and affecting the human respiratory system by making it difficult for patients to breathe. In the process of this fight, there are other challenges facing health facilities as a lack of enough ventilators. COVID-19 is a pandemic that affects the lungs. When it strikes, then patients require to be placed under ventilators to help them breathe and enhance their breathing as a way of narrowing the spread of the disease.

What are ventilators?

Simply put, ventilators are machines that help patients who have difficulties breathing on their own to breathe. The machine mimics the natural breathing style by delivering air through a tube to the patient’s windpipes. It is commonly used for patients with severe respiratory conditions, including pneumonia and other diseases that impact the lungs.

How it functions

When a patient is expected to be placed under ventilators, medical practitioners are expected to perform an intubation procedure. This procedure is to relax the patient’s muscles and sedate them to pave the way for the tube to pass. However, the process is quite complicated for coronavirus patients. So, medical staff is expected to be extra cautious when handling corona cases to avoid being infected with the virus..

How often are ventilators used?

Doctors have to look for specific signs in every patient that indicates they need to be placed on ventilators. There has to be an active sign of respiratory failure before making the decision. The first thing that doctors look for is the breathing rate and oxygen supply to the blood. The normal breathing rate of a person is about 15 breaths a minute. If this goes up to 28 breaths a minute, then a ventilator could be of great assistance. However, there are times when the oxygen levels can be boosted by placing patients in oxygen tanks. But that is not the case for COVID-19 cases as patients would still splutter and cough hence increase medical staff risks of contracting the virus.

What does ventilator shortage mean?

The spread of COVID-19 is quite rapid, and more patients are becoming weak. The number one priority of any health worker is to save lives and ensure patients are recovering. However, when there is a limited number of ventilators, it becomes difficult for doctors to respond to emergency calls. The shortage indicates that only patients at critical stages will be placed on the machine hence risk the lives of others.

What should be done?

This is a crisis that requires an urgent response in the way of minimizing the spread of the virus. The first step is what governments are doing in implementing partial lockdowns in various areas as well as emphasizing on social distancing. This will help curb the spread hence reduce the number of patients flow into critical care. On the other hand, it is essential for other companies as those in the auto industry to join in building more machines and increase their availability. The Australian government is also in the process of investigating whether the ventilators used in veterinary clinics for animals can be converted as a way of increasing ventilators in medical facilities.