Coronavirus Patient Dies After Medical Residents Reportedly Set Ventilator Too High

A coronavirus patient said to be in her 60s, died after medical resident doctors who were reportedly rushed to the front line of the outbreak set her ventilator too high. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the doctors were family medicine residents who did not have proper training on how to use the respiratory support device. An overnight shift of medical residents at the Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx was reportedly caring for the patient.

Breathing Support

Mechanical ventilators are devices that help patients who cannot breathe on their own for any reason. Sometimes called a respirator or breathing machine, the device uses pressure to blow oxygen into the lungs and remove carbon dioxide from the body, which is its most important aspect. They can breathe for patients who have a reduced ability, or has completely lost all ability, to breathe on their own.

While hospitals have been using these devices for a very long time, they took center stage when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Hospitals have been asking for more ventilators to help COVID-19 patients with breathing difficulties. One of the major symptoms of coronavirus infection is breathing difficulties.

Training Needed

Putting patients on ventilators is a common life-saving intervention in medical practice. Ventilators, however, are not simple machines that you can just turn on and off. Emergency health workers need to have a firm grasp of mechanical ventilation to minimize possible complications.

According to a former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden, ventilators are “…very complex machines, and you don't have enough respiratory therapists.” In the case of the Montefiore Hospital patient, she reportedly died because of wrong ventilator settings determined by medical residents.

Thrust Into Roles Not Prepared For

Medical residents are graduates of a medical school and are currently training for a specialty supervised by a senior physician. These family medicine residents do not typically work in an intensive care unit full of critically-ill patients. The coronavirus pandemic changed that. As COVID-19 patients overwhelm hospitals, medical residents were pushed into roles they were not prepared for.

According to reports, when the illness of the Montefiore Hospital coronavirus patient worsened overnight, residents hooked her to a ventilator. Reports say they may have accidentally set the settings too high, which may be the reason her heart stopped. When a critical care doctor rushed into the room, the medical residents admitted they did not know how to work the ventilator settings properly.

Doctors-In-Training At The Front Lines

The upsetting incident is among the many instances of doctors-in-training performing roles they are not supposed to do, which the Wall Street Journal has been reporting. Other medical residents, like those training to be podiatrists, ophthalmologists, psychiatrists, and dentists, are reportedly being shoved to the front line because doctors in the city are in short supply.

Anesthesiology residents at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut were being sent to perform the job of respiratory therapists, a licensed job requiring at least two years of training, reports say. Wall Street Journal reported further that these anesthesiology residents undergo one Zoom session and receive a Google document instructing them to call for an attending physician if they need help.

Extraordinary Conditions

A medical resident at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, who refused to be named, admitted to being afraid of seeing patients treated like “guinea pigs.” Wall Street Journal was able to interview officials at some hospitals who said the COVID-19 crisis had created extraordinary conditions that prompted them to call for an all-hands-on-deck response.

According to a spokesperson for the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, their mission is to save lives. The spokesperson also said: “…and our heroic health care workers are on the front lines … navigating unprecedented challenges under enormous pressure.” The spokesperson assured the Wall Street Journal, however, that they are constantly working to give patients all the support and resources needed. The Journal made a request for comment to Montefiore Medical Center, but they still have not responded as of posting.