Health care workers across the U.S. have risen to the occasion in combating the coronavirus pandemic. Anesthesiologists, in particular, have a vast skill set that makes them extremely valuable to care teams that manage critically ill COVID-19 patients, explains Dr. Yemi Odugbesan, physician anesthesiologist
Health care workers across the U.S. have risen to the occasion in combating the coronavirus pandemic. Skilled practitioners place themselves in harm's way to save lives -- but some medical professions face more dangers than others.
Because COVID-19 can result in severe respiratory issues, some patients need to be intubated, a lifesaving medical procedure in which doctors force a tube down a patient's throat, opening the airway and allowing patients to be placed on a ventilator.“The most critically ill COVID-19 patients suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS], a complex inflammatory response that causes the lungs to fill with fluid,” Dr. Odugbesan explains.
“In addition," says Dr. Odugbesan,"once the breathing tube is in place, airway particles can become aerosolized during the brief period of time it takes to connect a patient to the ventilator.” These are the concerns that anesthesiologists must address as they prepare for their typical 12-hour shifts. They mitigate their risk as much as possible by donning proper PPE for each intubation -- and because they may not know whether a patient has COVID-19 or not, they must gear up for every surgery as if the patient were COVID-19 positive.
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