Still just 3 positive COVIDS in my intensive care unit...all men. One is planned to be sent home to self quarantine on Monday, after his last dose of hydroxychloroquin. I believe they are all receiving that for for 5 days.
My other guy is kind of circling the drain, requiring 40-50% oxygen via a high flow nasal cannula (super nasal cannula in layman’s terms). While he looks reasonably OK, he has bilateral lung infiltrates and I wouldn’t be shocked if I walk in tomorrow morning to find find him on a ventilator. He’s a very nice guy and VERY scared...I try to keep him thinking positive. He has been coughing up blood which is obviously scary for him. He told me that if he gets over this, he is going to make sure none of his family travels anywhere, and that he is going to isolate himself in a desert until the virus is history. Those were his words, and we laughed together a little bit.
Today was day 2 for my vented patient, also with bilateral infiltrates and his lungs are in pretty bad shape. He has to stay very sedated for us to be able to ventilate him appropriately, and may ultimately end up requiring paralytics so we can take full control. The mortality rate once things progress to mechanical ventilation for COVID-19 patients is 80%- this is directly from my pulmonologists. I am going to have to dig deeper than usual into my bag of tricks if I am to keep this guy out of that 80% bracket.
I can’t imagine when I start getting more vented COVIDS- they are very sick and require a great deal of ventilator manipulation/management. While all 3 patients have comorbidities, none of those are significantly active problems at this time- they all got to this point from COVID-19 itself.