Comment by omar_a1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by omar_a1 | Hacker News Reader

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I don't know how to operate a ventilator, and have zero medical training, but I'm getting frustrated by the comments claiming medicine is trivially easy.

Even using a syringe or blood draw on a patient is something one needs certification to do properly. That isn't bureaucratic nonsense. Having worked with syringes and sterile technique, there are so many ways you can give your patient an infection or otherwise cause them life-altering complications if you don't know what you're doing, even for the actually trivial techniques. Operating a ventilator incorrectly will result in death. Likely a grisly one, as incorrect pressure differentials and human lungs are not a good combination.

Now that doesn't mean we need to stick to these bureaucratic rules as they are for this situation, but the people on here advocating for trying complicated medical procedures while knowing fuck all about medicine (or even biology) really need to take a step back and take an inventory of what they don't know, and can realistically expect to accomplish with neither the technical knowledge nor manual dexterity of a trained clinician. A YouTube video and a technical manual aren't going to cut it, folks.

I am getting frustrated by the comments that miss the big picture. There are likely going to be lots of people that are going to die without ventilator. Now, who with any common sense and decency[1] cares if 30% of them are dying because the device was not used properly/broke/whatever if the only other available option is that 100% of them die?

[1] Sigh... I know, I know. American lawyers and legal system.

In your example, a 30% mortality rate is a very big deal. If we had a hypothetical cure that killed 30% of the people it was administered to, I doubt it would get very far.

I'm not saying the alternative is do nothing. But playing doctor because you think that you're reasonably qualified to administer a ventilator, then we're going to end up with, say 30% mortality rates from patients whose lungs were sucked through a ventilator tube because you guessed the wrong pressure. Or, more realistically, a terrible infection because you decided soap and water in the bathroom sink would be sufficient to clean the apparatus.

And then what do you suppose will happen after 30% of these amateur medical procedures go South? Are you going to throw in the towel, try something even more reckless, or decide that you need to get an actual doctor involved to clean up your mess? At which point, you've just added yet another case to the already overburdened medical system. And at a 30% failure rate, that would become a major burden.

There's a lot of room for action between doing nothing and acting foolishly (such as claiming a 30% mortality rate for botched medical procedures is a rational tradeoff). There are ways to help the situation here that don't involve magically becoming a nurse overnight.

The thing you’re missing is these new RTs wold not just be treating COVID-19 patients. There are tons of people who will need ventilator therapy because they were injured or sick and they would have gotten injured or sick anyway. These are people who can be saved with proper treatment or injured by improper treatment. Barotrauma and lack of tidal volume have implications beyond simply alive or dead. We need people but we must make sure they can actually provide adequate treatment.

I'm not suggesting that you or I operate the ventilators, but I refuse to believe that hospitals can't get someone decently qualified to do the job. If the need arise, those 160000 ventilators will be in operation in a heartbeat. The only reason not to get more is if you believe that there won't be that many patients.

I'm sure the hospital nurses can learn via on-the-job training in a day. This is an emergent situation. No one is suggesting pulling a random person off the street to do it

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