On April 1, 2020, ER and critical care doctor from New York city, Dr Cameron Kyle-Sidell puts out a plea on YouTube to use oxygen not ventilators. [1]
“We’re stressed not only over concern for our own health, but because we’re watching people dying of a disease we do not understand. A disease we have never seen before…
…We are putting breathing tubes in people and putting them on ventilators and dialing up the pressure to open their lungs…its becoming increasingly clear that the pressure we’re providing maybe hurting their lungs…it is highly likely the pressure we are using is damaging the lungs of the patients we are putting the breathing tubes in.
…This is how we’ve treated ARDS for the last 20 years. 2 days ago the Italians came out with a letter stating the same thing, that we are running the ventilators in the wrong way…we can change those protocols. We need to change the protocols.
COVID-19 positive patients need oxygen, they do not need pressure. They will need ventilators, but they must be programmed differently”…”The protocols in this country must change…please spread the message.“
Dr Kyle-Sidell stepped down from his position a few days later. “‘I could not morally, in a patient-doctor relationship, continue the current protocols…” [1]