Hospitals facing an expected shortage of ventilators are considering unusual workarounds for critically ill patients in a sign of how scarce the breathing machines have become.
The primary fallback plan is to substitute anesthesia gas machines, thousands of which are unused as hospitals are forced to cancel nonurgent procedures. Other more desperate plans include substituting less sophisticated machines for the breathing devices or splitting ventilators among multiple patients.
“We’re creative and we’re working and figuring it out,” Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, said Tuesday. Continue reading.