Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day forty four
Speaker 1: since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story,
Speaker 1: the dire shortage of life saving ventilators that plagued the
Speaker 1: US in March, has been eased in many places. But
Speaker 1: even though these machines are a treatment of last resort
Speaker 1: for the sickest patients, most people on ventilators never recover.
Speaker 1: When they do, their bodies can be changed forever. But first,
Speaker 1: here's what happened today. The death told from the new
Speaker 1: coronavirus reached fifty in the US. The country is the
Speaker 1: epicenter of the global outbreak. According to data compiled by
Speaker 1: John's Hopkins University, New York City has suffered the most,
Speaker 1: with more than sixteen thousand deaths. In the US, some
Speaker 1: eight hundred and seventy thousand people have been infected. Still,
Speaker 1: some states have begun planning rollbacks on social distancing restrictions.
Speaker 1: That creates a challenge of how to restart the economy
Speaker 1: without sparking a second wave of infections. Some European countries,
Speaker 1: including Germany and Austria, are already taking cautious steps towards reopening.
Speaker 1: The u S response to the pandemic remains disjointed, and
Speaker 1: it's not clear how much policy is driven by science.
Speaker 1: In a Thursday evening briefing, President Donald Trump suggested that
Speaker 1: doctor's experiment with injecting disinfectant to treat coronavirus. His comments
Speaker 1: came after a Homeland Security under secretary told reports bleach
Speaker 1: and alcohol killed the virus on surfaces. Disinfect in brands
Speaker 1: and medical experts alike have made statements to the public
Speaker 1: stating in no uncertain terms that bleach is a toxic
Speaker 1: chemical and should never be ingested or inhaled in any way. Separately, today,
Speaker 1: the US Food and Drug Administration warned patients against taking
Speaker 1: two malaria medications that have been talked up by President
Speaker 1: Donald Trump for COVID nineteen unless carefully monitored in a
Speaker 1: hospital or as part of a clinical trial. The FDA
Speaker 1: said it was issuing the warning for the drugs hydroxy
Speaker 1: chloroquine and chloroquin after reports that patients taking them had
Speaker 1: experienced serious heart issues. These heart rhythm problems emerged especially
Speaker 1: when patients were also taking the antibiotic azithromyacin. Finally, Trump
Speaker 1: signed the four hundred and eighty four billion dollar Coronavirus
Speaker 1: Rescue Bill into law today. Congress has pumped out almost
Speaker 1: three trillion dollars to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, mostly
Speaker 1: on a bipartisan basis, But how Speaker and Anti Pelosi
Speaker 1: and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are poised to spar
Speaker 1: over the next round of government aid. Pelosi wants to
Speaker 1: expand the social safety net as well as provide five
Speaker 1: billion dollars to struggling state and local governments. McConnell hasn't
Speaker 1: yet committed to another big aid package and has indicated
Speaker 1: he will resist issuing aid to states. The next phase
Speaker 1: of economic stimulus likely will be the last before the elections.
Speaker 1: And now our main story, we've heard a lot about
Speaker 1: ventilators over the past few weeks. These once obscure pieces
Speaker 1: of medical equipment have become you biquitous in everyday conversation
Speaker 1: because the machines are so often used to treat very
Speaker 1: ill COVID nineteen patients. They are prized in hospitals across
Speaker 1: the US and beyond, but they are also feared for
Speaker 1: the damage they can inflict and for the slim odds
Speaker 1: of survival they offer. Ventilators are the last line of defense.
Speaker 1: They can completely take over for the lungs in the
Speaker 1: sickest patients, those with no other options, and give their
Speaker 1: bodies time to fight off an infection. There's a reason
Speaker 1: it's called life support. But the machines are invasive. Doctors
Speaker 1: have to insert a tube all the way down into
Speaker 1: the trachea to just above the lungs. Studies show most
Speaker 1: patients with COVID nineteen on ventilators don't survive, and that
Speaker 1: invasive process isn't without consequences. Michelle fake Cortes reports that
Speaker 1: we don't know exactly what ventilators due to our bodies.
Speaker 1: It's not yet clear what the long term consequences are
Speaker 1: for those lucky enough to recover after having been on one.
Speaker 1: Olivia Carville also reported this segment that round of applause
Speaker 1: you Here is a group of healthcare workers at Somerset
Speaker 1: Hospital in New Jersey. They're lining the halls, clapping and
Speaker 1: playing joyful music for Carlos Aguilar, a sixty four year
Speaker 1: old father from New Jersey who was just excavated after
Speaker 1: spending three days hooked up to a ventilator in intensive
Speaker 1: care units around the country. There are similar celebrations whenever
Speaker 1: a COVID nineteen patient gets off a ventilator. That's because
Speaker 1: it's rare. About seventy of patients who are put on
Speaker 1: a ventilator don't survive. Luckily, Carlos was eventually able to
Speaker 1: breathe on his own again. What makes his story even
Speaker 1: more remarkable is the fact that he wasn't alone. His
Speaker 1: wife of thirty five years, Diana, was treated for COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen in the same hospital. She was intubated for ten days.
Speaker 1: When she was taken off the ventilator, she got a
Speaker 1: cheering section and a song of her own. Diana remembers
Speaker 1: that fear she felt when she couldn't breathe before the
Speaker 1: ventilator was hooked up to breathe for her. She says
Speaker 1: she knew she was going to die. I gave up.
Speaker 1: I gave up. I called my husband, I stay bye
Speaker 1: to him. I can him more, I can breathe. The
Speaker 1: doctor came and said you need that vent to it.
Speaker 1: He said, don't, my god, And now they exclaiming what
Speaker 1: was going to happen to me? A lot of Stepida.
Speaker 1: I don't on the spin, but in the same time
Speaker 1: I want to they put it right away because I
Speaker 1: cannot drink. Diana, who worked as a janitor and has
Speaker 1: underlying health problems, including two bouts of colon cancer, had
Speaker 1: spent a week suffering from dizziness, body aches, shortness of breath,
Speaker 1: and a fever as high as a hundred and five
Speaker 1: point three before being admitted to Somerset with COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: The infection warped her reality. She thought the nurses and
Speaker 1: doctors wearing masks and gowns were angels or something else.
Speaker 1: We spoke to Diana a week after she was discharged.
Speaker 1: Her son, Carlos Aguilar Jr. Helped with the translation, It's
Speaker 1: so scary. It's like um, like space because the favor,
Speaker 1: the high favor, you know, it makes you see paints.
Speaker 1: I say, okay, oh my god, espras Alien doctors explained
Speaker 1: that she was about to be intibated and connected to
Speaker 1: a ventilator, but Diana was saying her goodbyes. I was
Speaker 1: so scared and everybody trying to slay me. What's going
Speaker 1: to happen to me? And they asked me, do you understand?
Speaker 1: Said yes, I understand. Only that I want is they
Speaker 1: helmet to bread you just wanted to hurry up. Diana
Speaker 1: was struggling to breathe because the infection and inflammation was
Speaker 1: taking hold in her lungs. Together, they caused to build
Speaker 1: up a fluid and thick mucus in the tiny air
Speaker 1: sacks that are critical for the lungs to work. After
Speaker 1: you take a breath, delicate sacks known as aviola, take
Speaker 1: oxygen from the air and transfer it into your blood.
Speaker 1: From there it fuels every part of your body. For
Speaker 1: Diane Anna, the system wasn't functioning. Not enough oxygen was
Speaker 1: getting into her blood. After she was sedated, doctor slid
Speaker 1: a tube down her throat that was connected to the ventilator.
Speaker 1: They adjusted the machine to deliver higher levels of oxygen
Speaker 1: than what's normally found in ambient air and raise the
Speaker 1: pressure to get it through her clogged lungs. Where you
Speaker 1: have a problem with ventilators who are working very hard
Speaker 1: trying to find Nobody in their wildest dreams would have
Speaker 1: ever thought that we need tens of thousands of ventilators.
Speaker 1: This is something that's very unique to this to what happened.
Speaker 1: There was a near panic early in the pandemic about
Speaker 1: the number of ventilators available in the US hospitals have
Speaker 1: about sixty three thousand of them across the country. New
Speaker 1: York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at one point that New
Speaker 1: York alone might need forty thou of them. All The
Speaker 1: projections say you could have an eight packs needing a
Speaker 1: hundred and forty thou beds and about forty ventilators. Those
Speaker 1: are numbers. Device makers ramped up production, and even car
Speaker 1: companies started making them. Hospitals we're seeing unprecedented demand. Only
Speaker 1: the most severe patients like Diana and Carlos need intubation,
Speaker 1: even with the help of a ventilator, many don't make it.
Speaker 1: For those who do survive extabation, that's not the end,
Speaker 1: far from it. After being weaned off life support, both
Speaker 1: Diana and Carlos have a long road to recovery. Part
Speaker 1: of its stems from the ventilator itself. Many patients are
Speaker 1: given sedatives so they don't fight against the machine that's
Speaker 1: trying to breathe for them, but muscles that are used
Speaker 1: to working every day quickly start to atrophy. A condition
Speaker 1: known as post i c U syndrome can develop in
Speaker 1: up to half of patients, a widespread weakness that never
Speaker 1: fully resolves. For some it's as if they're paralyzed. For others,
Speaker 1: regular activities are exhausting. Duct or Michael Roderick's is the
Speaker 1: medical director of Intensive Care at Somerset. He says some
Speaker 1: patients never regain their full strength. Sometimes when you're on
Speaker 1: the ventilator for two weeks, you're you're not able to
Speaker 1: go back to how you were prior to getting sick,
Speaker 1: and you need to go to rehab for some period
Speaker 1: of time to be able to do your activities of
Speaker 1: daily living. And it's not just physical activity. Sometimes memory
Speaker 1: and thinking clearly are also a challenge. You may have
Speaker 1: some mild cognitive impairments after being on the ventilator. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, someone that worked as an accountant prior to
Speaker 1: being on the ventilator and being in the i c U,
Speaker 1: they may have a tough time going back to work.
Speaker 1: Someone uh an older person who was maybe independent and
Speaker 1: drove and took care of all their own activities, while
Speaker 1: they may not be able to go back to that
Speaker 1: same lifestyle and they might need help. They might not
Speaker 1: be able to drive, they may not be able to
Speaker 1: shop and walk around the supermarket and carry out their
Speaker 1: own activities of daily living. Your overall condition may take
Speaker 1: some time to get back to its pre COVID pre
Speaker 1: I c U state, if if it even gets back
Speaker 1: to that free I c U state. That's why it's
Speaker 1: more important than ever to celebrate the winds right now.
Speaker 1: Diana and Carlos Aguilar have been together for thirty five years.
Speaker 1: They both got COVID nineteen, they were both on ventilators,
Speaker 1: and they both beat the odds. Here comes the sun. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I feel like a god give me, give us another opportunity.
Speaker 1: I give thanks to God to to live again. And
Speaker 1: I feel lucky. I feel lucky. It's some miracle. I
Speaker 1: feel though they am here and I can't say my
Speaker 1: story that was Michelle Fake Cortes. Olivia Carville also helped
Speaker 1: with reporting on this story. And that's it for our
Speaker 1: show today. For coverage of the outbreak from our bureaus
Speaker 1: around the world, please visit Bloomberg dot com, slash Coronavirus
Speaker 1: and as usual a favor. If you appreciate the show,
Speaker 1: please leave us a review and a rating on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more
Speaker 1: listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is
Speaker 1: hosted by Me Laura Carlson. The show was produced by
Speaker 1: Me Tophor Forehaz, Jordan Gospoure, and Magnus Hendrickson. Today's main
Speaker 1: story was reported by Michelle fay Cortes and Olivia Carville.
Speaker 1: Original music by Leo sidrin Our. Editors are Francesca Levi
Speaker 1: and Rick Shine. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.