re: Pretty confident my dad is about to die - The Covid blues

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The more patients on ventilators (WHICH DO MORE DAMAGE TO THE LUNGS) the more money the hospitals make

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This is the thing I'm most pissed about. They vented him without calling anyone and asking. I told my aunt not to let them vent him without them calling and of course they vented him without anyones consent and said that he consented to it.

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Vents=money.

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When it comes to Covid, vents are a last resort and nothing more. Either it is a life or death decision or the person literally says that they can not do it anymore. Working and struggling to breath just becomes too much for them. I've seen this more times than I want to think about, it is sad and some of it will hang with me forever.

A vent is a 50/50 outcome of surviving and really there is no garauntee of what kind of quality of life you have if you pull through....seen too many strokes...too many people with non-compliant cardboard lungs...too many people who just lose all of their strength from the whole experience and will end up in a nursing home. The vent doesn't cause holes in covid lungs, it is the disease process that does it. Which is why people often need to be put in deep sedation and paralyzed in order to synch with the vent. In order for them to oxygenate and do so in a manner that is sustainable.

The best way to prevent/treat covid is sadly really all on the front end. Getting the vaccine and/or getting infusion therapy if you are unvaccinated are keys. When you get to the ICU and get put on a vent it turns into a waiting game on how your body can fight it off and hopefully you don't get a secondary infection or other complication. We have given ICU patients invectermin because the family wanted it, not because it was going to do anything but more just to comfort them. There really is no harm in doing so but of course it is going to be up to the discretion of the MD. Tocilizumab is really one of the drugs I have seen that can help in the ICU stage of Covid but like with everything the sooner it is used the better.

Not sure what the policy is at the hospital your father is in but where I work it is 20 days from first symptoms and after that 20 days the patient can be moved and can have visitors.