Does anyone know the survival probability of a covid-19 patient once he requires the assistance of a ventilator? I have heard people mention it is fairly low but haven’t seen any figure on that.
Two hospitals, not a single patient survived ventilation/ecmo to date (last week).
in on study, 24/26 of pts with non-invasive mech ventilation and 31/32 of pts with invasive ventilation died.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
note that the study demographics were skewed to the more vulnerable cohorts (avg age = 56, range = 46-67, 62% male, 48% with a comorbidity).
Since you seem to be knowledgeable, if ventilating isn't a big-impact intervention, what's the point of flattening the curve? Is there some other intervention that hospital is doing that actually makes a more meaningful difference that can't be done at home?
Or is it maybe just psychological?
that study may be overly pessimistic. elsewhere, i think i saw 50/50 survival rates for ventilated patients but i don't have a source at hand.