US doctor simulates what Covid-19 patients see ‘at the end of their life’ in Twitter video
- Video is meant to be a first-person view of what it’s like to be intubated
- ‘For some patients, that’s all they see at the end of their life’
Dr Kenneth Remy knows the toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on US and he’s confident things will get better in 2021 with an effectively distributed vaccine.
First, the country needs to get through the winter – and that means adhering to coronavirus-related precautions like wearing a mask, he said.
That’s why Remy, a researcher at Washington University in St Louis and doctor at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St Louis Children’s Hospital, made a video to stress the point. The video is meant to be a first-person view of what it’s like to be intubated while breathing too fast – “30, 40, 50 times a minute,” Remy said.
“You’re lying in that bed, looking up at me and others in the room,” he said. “It simulates, basically, what it looks like to breathe, and then, frankly, what it looks like for me to come at you with an endotracheal tube and a laryngoscope.”
He added: “For some patients, that’s all they see at the end of their life. They see that, they get some medicines and they never awaken again.”
Covid-19 cases have spiked in the United States, leading governors in many states to revisit restrictions heading into the holiday season. The US reported more than 12.7 million cases and over 262,000 deaths as of Wednesday night, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
