Proning...

climbnjump

Active member
Here's a new one.

A Dr. in Las Vegas has treated a nurse who came down with covid-19 by rolling her over. Yep. Got her off her back and onto her stomach. Seems they've starting using this in general treatment in that hospital - "Southern Hills". It appears to be helping many patients. It apparently relieves pressure on the lungs and enables patients to breath easier and stay off the ventilator.

Sometimes the simple things are effective...
 

climbnjump

Active member
This has been known for some time.
I don't understand why it hasn't been standard procedure.

Well, I'm not a doctor so I really don't know. But if I had to guess, it would be that the vast majority of patients are elderly and many of them become ill so fast that they need to go right to the ventilator. Perhaps this works best with younger patients who are declining slower and can be kept from needing a ventilator using this method. And also many elderly folks have bad backs which makes lying on their stomachs very, very uncomfortable if not impossible.
 

Magnum

Well-known member
My wife is an ICU nurse and she's in the thick of this mess. She says every doctor is doing whatever they think best and there isn't a standard protocol. Some doctors want steroids some say they'll kill you. It's different everywhere.
 

climbnjump

Active member
Some doctors want steroids some say they'll kill you.

I saw one doc on TV the other day saying that symptoms for some affected people reminded him of breathing difficulties related to altitude sickness. Back in my high altitude climbing days, we always carried dexamethasone. This was to counter the effects of HAPE - high altitude pulmonary edema or HACE - high altitude cerebral edema. For this purpose, the drug cures nothing, but hopefully buys you some time to return to a lower altitude where you can recover. But there is no "lower altitude" for covid victims. But perhaps the "buying time" aspect might still be of some use.
 

sparkyv

Member
I don't hold medical doctors in high regard as do so many others. So very often they're just guessing what's wrong and they prescribe antibiotics way too often, just for starters. Many take a very empirical approach to healing...trial and error as it were. Not saying we don't need them, just saying that I approach their opinions from a doubtful perspective. Trust but verify.
 

Olon

Active member
I don't hold medical doctors in high regard as do so many others. So very often they're just guessing what's wrong and they prescribe antibiotics way too often, just for starters. Many take a very empirical approach to healing...trial and error as it were. Not saying we don't need them, just saying that I approach their opinions from a doubtful perspective. Trust but verify.

Agreed. The whole concept of vaccines really.
 

WrongHanded

Well-known member
Did not. Immunity makes sense to me I guess I don't know much about vaccines admittedly.

Usually, vaccines create the conditions for the body to build up the required immunity, without risking exposure to the full strength disease itself. Super clever, but not straight forward, especially with diseases like the common flu, that mutate so easily.
 

climbnjump

Active member
I saw one doc on TV the other day saying that symptoms for some affected people reminded him of breathing difficulties related to altitude sickness. Back in my high altitude climbing days, we always carried dexamethasone. This was to counter the effects of HAPE - high altitude pulmonary edema or HACE - high altitude cerebral edema. For this purpose, the drug cures nothing, but hopefully buys you some time to return to a lower altitude where you can recover. But there is no "lower altitude" for covid victims. But perhaps the "buying time" aspect might still be of some use.


Ok, so almost two months after I posted the above, there has been a study published on the drug I mentioned - dexamethasone. Apparently, it does help in some cases.

A quote from the press release:

"Researchers estimated that the drug would prevent one death for every eight patients treated while on breathing machines and one for every 25 patients on extra oxygen alone. "

 
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