David Lat is the founding editor of Above the Law, a website covering the legal profession, and a managing director at Lateral Link, a legal recruiting firm.
The ventilator has become an object of national fascination — and controversy. The previously obscure medical device, which mechanically helps patients to breathe, has shot to worldwide fame during the coronavirus pandemic. Many patients with serious cases of covid-19 suffer respiratory failure and will die if they can’t be connected to ventilators.
I should know. I spent six days on a ventilator, in critical condition in the intensive care unit at New York University Langone medical center in New York City. I would not be here today without a ventilator.
On March 16, I was admitted to the hospital with the coronavirus. I had a number of flu-like symptoms, including fever, chills, aches and fatigue. But my most serious complaint — as someone who suffered from asthma as a child and has exercise-induced asthma as an adult, albeit managed well with an inhaler — was difficulty breathing…
To read the entire article from The Washington Post, click https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/09/my-near-death-experience-ventilator/