Coronavirus survivor is cheered by nurses as she leaves hospital
Emotional moment woman, 44, who survived coronavirus after 10 days on a ventilator is cheered by medical staff as she leaves the hospital
- Video filmed from inside St David’s South Austin Medical Center shows the 44-year-old woman leaving on Thursday to a huge round of applause
- She was admitted to hospital mid-March and remained there for 16 days
- The patient was on a ventilator for 10 days and surprised staff when she was feeding herself snacks a day after being removed from a breathing tube
- ‘Thank you so much for trusting us with your care,’ tells her as she leaves
This is the heartwarming moment a coronavirus survivor was greeted by a chorus of applause as she left a Texas hospital after 16 days of treatment.
A video filmed from inside St David’s South Austin Medical Center shows the 44-year-old woman being pushed out of an elevator in a wheelchair by a carer on Thursday.
As she emerges into the lobby the patient is surprised to see the area decorated with celebratory bunting and dozens of nurses clapping for her exit.
‘Thank you,’ she says, waving. ‘Oh my goodness.’
The woman was finally leaving after 10 days on a ventilator.
Video filmed from inside St David’s South Austin Medical Center shows the 44-year-old woman leaving on Thursday to a huge round of applause
In the clip shared online, the patient’s reaction is disguised by her medical mask but it’s clear she is overwhelmed about the reception she got from staff when leaving the hospital.
She pinches the top of her mask at her nose while a medical worker rubs her shoulder to comfort her.
As she makes it outside, another team member thanks the woman whose life they helped save.
‘Thank you so much for trusting us with your care,’ the woman says from the behind the camera. ‘Wish you a speedy recovery, let us know if there’s anything we can do for you. Take care of yourself.’
As she emerges into the lobby the patient is surprised to see the area decorated with celebratory bunting and dozens of nurses clapping for her exit
She is overwhelmed about the reception she got from staff when leaving the hospital. But the patient’s reaction is disguised by her medical mask
‘OK I will. Thank you,’ the patient replies as she is led to her transfer.
The patient has not been named but gave the hospital permission to share clips.
The woman went into the facility in the middle of March after developing cough and a fever.
According to a study out of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, only three in 22 patients who go on the breathing machines survive.
However this patient was sitting up and feeding herself Jell-O and chips one day after her breathing tube was removed.
The woman is seen holding back tears after staff wish her well and thank her for trusting them
Above shows the number of coronavirus cases and death in the US as of Tuesday, as well as the country’s hotspots
HOW NEW YORK IS USING BIPAP MACHINES AS VENTILATORS TO SAVE COVID-19 PATIENTS AND HOW THE TWO DEVICES DIFFER
As a critical shortage of ventilators looms, New York Governor Andre Cuomo revealed Friday that the state will begin repurposing BiPAP machines to sustain severely ill coronavirus patients.
Last week, the state resorted to converting anesthesia machines to supplement its stockpile of an estimated 6,500 ventilators.
Thursday, Cuomo said he wasn’t sure if BiPAP machines could or would be used as ventilators, but by Friday the state had included them in the list of alternatives it was pursuing.
WHAT IS A BIPAP MACHINE?
BiPAP is an acronym for bilevel positive airway pressure. These and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are used to treat patients with sleep apnea.
People with sleep apnea may stop breathing during while asleep for a number of reasons, and the machine ensures they continue to have normal respiration.
One of the machine’s positive pressure airways helps to push air into the lungs while a second is set to a lower pressure that makes it easier for a patient to breathe out normally.
The alternation of these two components is set to match the patient’s normal inhalation and exhalation pattern, which makes it feel more comfortable and similar to natural breathing when in use.
Pressure is delivered through a tube connected to a face mask that’s worn at night.
HOW IS A BIPAP MACHIE DIFFERENT FROM A VENTILATOR?
Ventilators are typically reserved for only the sickest patients who may not be able to breathe on their own at all, as opposed to sleep apnea patients, whose breathing is abruptly interrupted periodically, but whose lungs are generally functional.
So-called mechanical ventilation is both more invasive and more forceful than a BiPap.
Patients on ventilators are intubated, meaning a tube is threaded through the mouth and airway and the machine creates the contraction and expansion action their lungs are no longer able to do on their own.
They can, however, be used less invasively, with a mask like patients on BiPAP machines use.
HOW CAN A BIPAP MACHINE BE USED AS A VENTILATOR?
Both machines broadly help the lungs when they’re struggling to function.
For one, the settings have to be adjusted to not just augment the patient’s inhalations and exhalations, but to do the work for them.
To convert BiPAPs, which are typically used with masks, to be used on intubated patients, scientists at Northwell Health in New York City 3-D printed a T-shaped adapter.
Their method has been tested successfully on dozens of patients.
At the University of California, Berkeley, team reconfigured a BiPAP machine so that it can take in oxygen from a tank, rather than just drawing on the air around it.
Endotracheal tubes that go down the windpipe were then attached in addition to a double-filtering system to ensure that pathogens like the coronavirus don’t get in or out.
Already, the FDA has cleared the way for sleep apnea machines like these to be used as ventilators, a previously unapproved use for BiPAP or similar CPAP machines.
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