It seems that everyone that has died from Corona has had some sort of underlying circumstances. What do you think these are?Besides breathing problems? Reason I say is my sister in law is a nurse and they had a girl die form a heroin overdose in the ER, and they wanted to test her for corona. It came back negative but it seems like they are hoping.My other question would be how many of the deaths are 100 percent related to only the virus?
Underlying conditions
- Thread starter jas4bama
- Start date
Not all have have pre-existing conditions. I have heard of healthy people dying. Idk of any personally though. Conditions would be COPD, diabetes, bed-ridden nursing home type elderly people who are fragile and would succumb to anything, and immunocompromised people. I?m sure there are other conditions too.
I think this might ravage third world countries. A big part of treatment is just basic supplemental Oxygen which isn?t readily available everywhere like it is in the USA.
Edit/add: forgot smoking. Huge risk factor for a worse outcome with corona.
Last edited:
Thanks 6/5,,One other question,,,Is there like different ventilators for different symptons/conditions? In other words I have heard there are 3 different types of vents from good to worse conditions.
All the hospital ventilators can do multiple settings. This is a very basic breakdown.
Cpap mode: this is for people who have obstructive sleep apnea. Helps support their sleep and provide continuous positive airway pressure. This is what I use every time I sleep. The person who uses this is completely breathing all on their own. Oxygen can be ?bled? in while on cpap mode. Patient does not have to be intubated for this setting.
Bipap mode: this is for people who are retaining CO2 and need support with their breathing, BUT they are still breathing on their own. A lot of covid patients will be on this if caught soon enough. COPD patients often have to be on this at home and can easily go into full blown respiratory failure if they skip a few days. So, think early respiratory failure, helps remove excess CO2, supports breathing, patient still breathing on their own though. This mode and IV Lasix also very helpful with Congestive Heart Failure (bipap setting helps ?push out? the fluid in the lungs). Oxygen commonly and usually used with bipap mode. The patient does not have to be intubated for bipap mode. If the patient fails on this mode or worsens, they will be intubated and go on the ventilator.
Ventilator mode: again, this is very basic. There are several setting for ventilator mode as I?ll call it, but all include the machine breathing for you. This is life support. The patient is either not breathing at all or only taking a few spontaneous breaths a minute. Supplemental Oxygen is almost always bled in. Can go from 28% or so to 100% (Regular air is about 21% Oxygen). The patient has to have an artificial airway for this (intubated). Often patients are sedated BC they have periods of being partially awake and confused when they try to extubate themselves. I have seen patients rip out their Endotracheal tubes, throw them down, and then not be able to breathe which means another emergency intubation.
Different ventilator modes include Pressure Support, Assist Control, and SIMV (others too). There are also multiple other setting like volume, percent of Oxygen, PEEP, Volume, etc. I?m not working critical care now, so I?m rusty. I could still do it, but I don?t take care of ventilators every day. Hope that helps!
