Don't Catch It If You Can

I found the following pictures on my Facebook feed. The original source is HERE.

I thought ventilation was like in the movies where doctors place something over your nose and mouth to give you more oxygen.

It turns out that Covid19 ventilation is far more invasive than I thought. The intubation is done under general anaesthesia. Once intubated you have to go 2 to 3 weeks without moving, often upside down (ventral decubitus) with a tube buried in the mouth to the trachea. The mechanical ventilator then dictates the rhythm of your breathing. You can't talk or eat or do anything without help. There is pain along with the intubation. So, you will need sedatives and painkillers. You will live in a sort of an artificial coma. In 20 days of this, a young patient experiences the loss of 40% muscle mass requiring rehabilitation of 6 to 12 months. There will be injury to your mouth and perhaps even vocal cords.

If it were not a medical procedure to save lives, this could well be some sort of medieval torture. This is why old people don't make it through.