“For so many sick COVID-19 patients, getting attached to a mechanical ventilator was a death sentence. More than two-thirds of the patients in Northwell Health facilities hooked to ventilators died in March and early April and the fatality rate was similar at other hospitals.
At the beginning of the pandemic, health officials were worried whether there would be a shortage of ventilators to intubate COVID patients with serious breathing and lung problems. But then discussion in the medical community turned to whether the machines were being overused and possibly contributing to a higher death rate.”
The findings will be ghoulish. But they must be faced.
Those that incentivized the use of ventilators must be held to account too. What did they expect would happen? When you subsidize something you get more of it, as the ancient wisdom goes.
