This is interesting. They're beginning to think Covid-19 causes lung issues similar to high-altitude pulmonary edema. The standard ventilator protocol for treating Covid-19 patients is therefore not best approach. Some hospitals are starting to use ventilators as if they're treating high-altitude pulmonary edema instead. The article includes the statement: "While not willing to name the hospitals at this time, he said that one center in Europe has had a 0% mortality rate among COVID-19 patients in the ICU when using this approach, compared with a 60% mortality rate at a nearby hospital using a protocol-driven approach."


[www.the-hospitalist.org]
"Is protocol-driven COVID-19 respiratory therapy doing more harm than good?
Publish date: April 6, 2020
Author(s): Sharon Worcester
Physicians in the COVID-19 trenches are beginning to question whether standard respiratory therapy protocols for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are the best approach for treating patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

At issue is the standard use of ventilators for a virus whose presentation has not followed the standard for ARDS, but is looking more like high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) in some patients."

Click on link for full article.

Thanks J1, that was fascinating. I wonder how doable the suggested alternative is in hospitals that are currently overrun with patients, as one frontline worker in New York said they weren't able to adjust the ventilators as much as they needed to even using the standard protocol, due to that increasing the exposure for medical workers. Nevertheless, with a 0% fatality rate it seems an obvious direction to go in.