Yet if your oxygen saturation’s start dipping into the 60s your heart rate goes up. I had a Covid patient who we knew didn’t want intubation but the high flow oxygen was turned all the way up. He couldn’t catch his breath, breath rate 50 per minute.
We drew labs and EKG because chest pain, his heart rate 200s consistently. (Your heart pumps faster to get the oxygen out to the body, it compensates)
His labs showed the enzyme we check for when you have a heart attack. His heart was exhausted.
He asked what could be done and we said to put the tube in so it can push air harder. Otherwise he would have just coded and died of a heart attack anyway. He knew it, his chest was on fire. Those were his words.
He finally asked for the vent. That guy came back after the ICU and is doing better. We keep cheering him on.
So you can say no to the vent, but then there’s reality. What else would you do to treat this patient? Let us know and I will start giving others these options.
No one has a better answer. These people would die anyway with loss of consciousness, stroke or heart attack. Your body needs oxygen.
Yet if your oxygen saturation’s start dipping into the 60s your heart rate goes up. I had a Covid patient who we knew didn’t want intubation but the high flow oxygen was turned all the way up. He couldn’t catch his breath, breath rate 50 per minute.
We drew labs and EKG because chest pain, his heart rate 200s consistently.
His labs showed the enzyme we check for when you have a heart attack. His heart was exhausted.
He asked what could be done and we said to put the tube in so it can push air harder. Otherwise he would have just coded and died of a heart attack anyway. He knew it, his chest was on fire. Those were his words.
He finally asked for the vent. That guy came back after the ICU and is doing better. We keep cheering him on.
So you can say no to the vent, but then there’s reality. What else would you do to treat this patient? Let us know and I will start giving others these options.
No one has a better answer. These people would die anyway with loss of consciousness, stroke or heart attack. Your body needs oxygen.