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According to a new study, about 88% of COVID-19 patients who received ventilation in a New York hospital system died.
In the new study, researchers analyzed data from 5,700 patients who were hospitalized from March 1 to April 4 through Northwell Health, New York’s largest health system, with 12 hospitals in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County. Of those patients, 2,634 were discharged or died at the end of the study, and 320 patients with a recorded outcome were placed on ventilators. Almost 9 out of 10 of those ventilated patients died.
But age made a difference. According to the report, about 76% of ventilated patients between the ages of 18 and 65 died, and 97% of ventilated patients older than 65 died.
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Of the 2,634 patients, ventilated or not, about 21% died, according to the researchers. But that meant that the majority, or 3,066, of the patients were still hospitalized when the study ended, which could have “skewed the results,” the authors wrote.
The researchers found that among patients who were hospitalized, the most common underlying conditions were hypertension (about 56.6%), obesity (about 41.7%), and diabetes (about 33.8%).
The bleak statistics do not imply that the fans caused damage, said lead author Karina Davidson, senior vice president and professor at Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes of Medical Research.
By contrast, “patients who receive ventilators tend to have a more serious illness,” and are therefore more likely to die, Davidson told Live Science in an email. “Mechanical fans are not dangerous and, in many cases, they are life-saving machines.”
The findings were published April 22 in the JAMA magazine.
Originally published in Living science.
