Kinda SELF EXPLANATORY! You best stop hittin that flask of 151 ... R U M !
But seriously... how this damn V kills people is from the lungs being BLOCKED .. then these poor folks suffocate to death
Hence the need for the ventilators
No sweetheart, the lungs don't get "blocked" and people are not suffocating. Clearly your mind was elsewhere during pulmonology class in med school.
In any event, what happens to the lungs during a respiratory illness like this is their function becomes reduced or non-existent, caused by whatever complications result from being infected with a virus that has no cure. If the lungs are sick, so is the person who owns them. This is why you hear so much about people being at more at risk with those nasty pre-existing conditions like emphysema, etc. Capiche?
Also, a ventilator essentially DOES THE BREATHING FOR YOU. I know this because my kid's been on one a bunch of times. "Coming off the vent" is a big deal in the recovery process becuase that means the patient is breathing on their own without help.
I disagree, The current thinking seems to be, the virus really likes the lungs as a human petri dish, the body mounts a severe inflammation response, causing the lungs to accumulate an abundance of fluids, which soon leads to pneumonia, and one then declines due to lack of air while their lungs fill with fluids and effectively rot from the pneumonia. Also why shortness of breath is an aerly warning of the serious progression of the virus. The only upside, the patient is often in a drug induced coma ( one of the reasons why visitors are not allowed) while on a ventilator that tries to keep patient alive while body fights the virus, and as seen so far, its not always a good outcome. Sounds like a horrible way to check out. IMO.
Last edited by jcc; 03/29/2009:38 PM.
Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
