businessinsider.com
"Ventilators might actually make matters worse, by igniting or worsening a harmful immune system reaction.
Ventilators can be damaging to a patient over time, as high-pressure oxygen is forced into the tiny air sacs in a patient’s lungs.
'We know that mechanical ventilation is not benign,' said Dr. Eddy Fan, an expert on respiratory treatment at Toronto General Hospital. 'One of the most important findings in the last few decades is that medical ventilation can worsen lung injury.'
40% to 50% of patients with severe respiratory distress die while on ventilators, experts say.
But 80% or more of coronavirus patients placed on the machines in New York City have died, state and city officials say.
Higher-than-normal death rates also have been reported elsewhere in the U.S., said Dr. Albert Rizzo, the American Lung Association’s chief medical officer.
Similar reports have emerged from China and the United Kingdom. One U.K. report put the figure at 66%. A very small study in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the disease first emerged, said 86% died."