We have over 25,000 cases in New York and they are now splitting ventilators

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Our governor is pleading for the federal government to send ventilators, and so far - nothing. They have 20,000 in the federal stockpile.

I feel numb. The doctors are trying to split ventilators between patients, it obviously isn't ideal and is experimental - different people need different pressures depending on lung capacity.

It's a beautiful sunny day and I've just started a new job remotely but finding it really difficult to concentrate, I am high risk and am so worried for OH and myself.

Need to get back to work but just needed to do a brain vomit to get this out of my head.

Ffs 25000. Thousand. Twenty five thousand.

It’s the worst when administration FUs are causing some of the suffering.

I hope they get it sorted and release extra machines ASAP x

💕 I’m scared too OP. I’ve been in hospital on oxygen before but not a Ventilator. Honestly I find the thought of it pretty horrific.

In the U.K. all sorts of manufacturing plants are now adapting to make more ventilators, hopefully they’ll get what they need soon in the US as well

Apparently Trump wants everyone back to work.

I also can’t really concentrate, especially when all my usual health problems haven’t gone away! I just don’t really have the mental capacity to deal with them and carry on as I normally can.

@AbsentmindedWoman

Ffs 25000. Thousand. Twenty five thousand.

We've edited the title of your thread, OP, as requested.

Thank you MNHQ.

How do you split a ventilator? Different tubes with a filter into the same machine. How are you meant to wean according to ABG’s do you just treat the sicker patient?

Unsure how it works but apparently it was used with the Las Vegas shooting - I think it is used more in trauma emergencies.

The catch is the people sharing have to have similar needs re lung capacity which is going to be difficult with pneumonia/ infection. In theory, one way valves mean no cross contamination but who knows.

I just cannot think straight. It's too much.

And I mean, cross contamination is a concern because even if they all have covid 19 if you share the medical gear that intimately - will it just spread other secondary opportunistic lung infection too?

But if your or a loved one has the choice of zero vent or shared vent - what choice are you going to make?

@YangShanPo when did he say that? Apart from the fact that it’s perfectly reasonable to expect anyone who can work from home, anyone who is healthy enough and whose job can be done from home, to continue to do so. In our state, all businesses have been ordered to close unless the work can be done from home. Trump doesn’t have much say in what goes on at a state level anyway.

Looking at the figures, I know where I’d rather be ill at the moment. The UK has only 5000 ventilators. But already more than 8,000 cases. Granted not everyone will be at the stage of needing a ventilator but I’d rather not take the chance. The US has 50,000 cases and over 100,000 ventilators. We also have 10 times the number of ICU beds per capita than the UK.

And I’m in Washington state. Still a better place to be during this than the UK.

I inferred it from this news report www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52009108

I've just read our death rate is rising faster than Lombardy. Already 1 in 700 of us in NY have it.

I don't know what to do. I feel it's coming for us one way or another.