re: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) ***W.H.O. DECLARES A GLOBAL PANDEMIC***

At the point of intubation you are administered sedation and medication to paralyze your muscles. The initial paralysis wears off in a few minutes to hours depending on what you are given; sedation is continued to the point that you are in somewhat of a twilight. They want you to be able to do some of the work. The ventilator is programmed to support the breaths hat you take while also making sure you have adequate ventilation.

For more severe ARDS it becomes necessary to administer full time paralysis. This is the last step before going prone.

In order to wean the ventilator it is necessary to turn off/administer minimal sedation so that you are able to do more work on your own and basically prove that at you are able to adequately breathe to not need the ventilator. So seeing people move their arms, etc while on the ventilator is accurate.