What about those CPAP machines for snorers? Could those be rigged with an oxygen tank?
Good question - I'll look into that.
Edit:
Doctors say the machine that helps some people with sleep apnea keep their airway open at night won't be enough to help an ill COVID-19 patient breathe and could spread the coronavirus to bystanders.
www.npr.org
That can difficulty can be solved I think. But, like actual ventilators, it is not as good as hyperbaric chambers which actually increase Oxygen to tissues - not just to damaged lungs.
"On March 22, the FDA said that manufacturers and health care professionals can make necessary modifications to convert continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bi-level positive air pressure (BiPAP) machines to treat respiratory insufficiency, provided the design mitigations minimized aerosolization.1 "
reference 1 - "US. Food & Drug Administration.
Ventilator Supply Mitigation Strategies: Letter to Health Care Providers. Accessed March 2020."
Recommendations for health care providers and facilities in treating patients who require ventilation assistance due to COVID-19 complications
www.fda.gov
However, like ventilators, this would just increase oxygen to the lungs, not to all exposed tissues as is the case with hyperbaric chambers. Also, usually a hyperbaric treatment only requires a few hours while ventilators generally generally involve whole days - or even longer.
And, many on ventilators die - not so likely with hyperbaric chambers.
From the 1988 article I posted in OP:
This is an authorized Web site of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is a research tool for publications in various languages produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
wol.jw.org
"By now Bonnie was so critical that she could not take the 30-minute ambulance ride between hospitals. So it was arranged that she would be transported by helicopter, a ride of only four minutes. A nurse who was a member of the helicopter medical team, after contacting the hospital and learning that Bonnie’s hemoglobin had dropped to 2.2, replied: “You must be mistaken. She should already be dead!”
Hyperbaric treatments were started Monday night and continued all night, one and a half hours in the chamber and two and a half hours out. The first two treatments appeared to revitalize Bonnie and boost her energy. But the close quarters of the chamber began to agitate her. The chamber has an intercom to talk through, so I used it to calm her down....
By Wednesday morning she was disoriented most of the time, and her resting heart rate was 170, way above the normal of about 70. She had wide fluctuations in blood pressure. Her hemoglobin count was 2.2, and the hematocrit (the measure of cells in circulating blood) was an alarming 6. Normal is 40-65.
I’ll never forget that Wednesday morning. Doctors who had been consulting at Bonnie’s bedside asked to see me. “This is it,” they said. “Call the relatives and her friends. Bonnie is definitely going to die today. There is nothing else we can do. She will die from either a heart attack or a stroke. Even a blood transfusion would do nothing at this point. She is beyond all of that. We have changed her to a ‘do not resuscitate’ code status, which means we will not medicate her or try to revive her if her blood pressure drops....
After all had said their good-byes, the doctor had Bonnie maintained in a paralyzed state with a drug called Pavulon. This drug makes it impossible to move any muscles. A person goes into a state of deep sleep. Bonnie looked as though she were in a coma. The doctor said she would feel no pain in this condition if a heart attack ensued and that she would die comfortably. At this point her eyelids were taped shut so that even a twitch would not dr ain what little energy remained in her body....
Wednesday passed, and to the astonishment of the staff, Bonnie was still alive Thursday. Late that afternoon, the doctor came to me and said he wanted to try hyperbaric treatments again. The treatments continued throughout the night....
On Friday morning, I was asleep in the lobby when I was awakened by two doctors. They quickly assured me that the news they brought was good and not bad. Bonnie had stabilized significantly. “You know what? I think we actually have reason for hope,” one doctor said. “If her blood pressure drops, it would now be unfair not to medicate her, so I’ve already changed the instructions on her chart. You have to remember that we are in uncharted waters here because we’ve never gone this far without using blood before.
Saturday night I was by Bonnie’s bedside along with her nurse. We hung a picture of our new baby over Bonnie’s head even though her eyes were still taped shut. This was done so that when her eyes opened, the first thing she would see was a picture of her new baby. It was hoped that this would give her reason to keep fighting for life. Under these circumstances, I revealed to the nurse that the following day would be our 18th wedding anniversary. On hearing this, she wiped tears from her eyes....
The doctor was right, though, when he said not to celebrate too soon. New problems arose. Bonnie next developed two types of pneumonia, and her left lung partially collapsed. Besides this, she tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease. Any one of these complications could have killed her. I’m happy to say that none of them did....
After losing 80 percent of her blood, spending 28 days in the hospital (22 of them in intensive care), and undergoing 58 sessions in the hyperbaric chamber, Bonnie was finally released to go home. Astonished, the doctor exclaimed: “She looks great. It’s a miracle, that’s all I can say.”....
Only two months after her grueling ordeal, Bonnie was out in the public preaching work again, doing the work she loves the most. And as an added blessing, she has a new pioneer partner, our baby girl, Allie Lauren.—
As told by Steven M. Beaderstadt."
I wasn't sure you all would read the article so I posted excerpts. Reason for hope - right!
