^^^^^
That's what I'm seeing at my hospital. It was Fucking me up in the head. These people come in with the breathing issue, they go from a nasal cannula to a non rebreather mask in the course of a couple of hours and end up on the ventilator. My normal day in the icu is taking care of vented patients. But the settings on the vents for the covid patients is like cowboy shit. Normal respiratory rate for a person is 12-20 breaths a minute. The only way I can explain what the covid patients vent settings is as follows. Take a balloon and blow into it until it's about to explode. Then suck the air in and repeat thirty times a minute for days on end. Eventually their lungs are unable to move any air in or out. But before they die, they've been on dialysis for a few days. They die by themselves without their family by their side. I will hold their hands as they pass. One guy I had, right before we intubated him he called his wife and told her he loves her and said his goodbyes in case he couldn't get of the vent. A week and a half later, dead.