Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day forty four since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story, the dire shortage of life saving ventilators that plagued the US in March, has been eased in many places. But even though these machines are a treatment of last resort for the sickest patients, most people on ventilators never recover. When they do, their bodies can be changed forever. But first, here's what happened today. The death told from the new
coronavirus reached fifty in the US. The country is the epicenter of the global outbreak. According to data compiled by John's Hopkins University, New York City has suffered the most, with more than sixteen thousand deaths. In the US, some eight hundred and seventy thousand people have been infected. Still, some states have begun planning rollbacks on social distancing restrictions. That creates a challenge of how to restart the economy
without sparking a second wave of infections. Some European countries, including Germany and Austria, are already taking cautious steps towards reopening. The u S response to the pandemic remains disjointed, and it's not clear how much policy is driven by science. In a Thursday evening briefing, President Donald Trump suggested that doctor's experiment with injecting disinfectant to treat coronavirus. His comments came after a Homeland Security under secretary told reports bleach
and alcohol killed the virus on surfaces. Disinfect in brands and medical experts alike have made statements to the public stating in no uncertain terms that bleach is a toxic chemical and should never be ingested or inhaled in any way. Separately, today, the US Food and Drug Administration warned patients against taking two malaria medications that have been talked up by President Donald Trump for COVID nineteen unless carefully monitored in a
hospital or as part of a clinical trial. The FDA said it was issuing the warning for the drugs hydroxy chloroquine and chloroquin after reports that patients taking them had experienced serious heart issues. These heart rhythm problems emerged especially when patients were also taking the antibiotic azithromyacin. Finally, Trump signed the four hundred and eighty four billion dollar Coronavirus
Rescue Bill into law today. Congress has pumped out almost three trillion dollars to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, mostly on a bipartisan basis, But how Speaker and Anti Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are poised to spar over the next round of government aid. Pelosi wants to expand the social safety net as well as provide five billion dollars to struggling state and local governments. McConnell hasn't yet committed to another big aid package and has indicated
he will resist issuing aid to states. The next phase of economic stimulus likely will be the last before the elections. And now our main story, we've heard a lot about ventilators over the past few weeks. These once obscure pieces of medical equipment have become you biquitous in everyday conversation because the machines are so often used to treat very
ill COVID nineteen patients. They are prized in hospitals across the US and beyond, but they are also feared for the damage they can inflict and for the slim odds of survival they offer. Ventilators are the last line of defense. They can completely take over for the lungs in the sickest patients, those with no other options, and give their bodies time to fight off an infection. There's a reason
it's called life support. But the machines are invasive. Doctors have to insert a tube all the way down into the trachea to just above the lungs. Studies show most patients with COVID nineteen on ventilators don't survive, and that invasive process isn't without consequences. Michelle fake Cortes reports that we don't know exactly what ventilators due to our bodies. It's not yet clear what the long term consequences are for those lucky enough to recover after having been on one.
Olivia Carville also reported this segment that round of applause you Here is a group of healthcare workers at Somerset Hospital in New Jersey. They're lining the halls, clapping and playing joyful music for Carlos Aguilar, a sixty four year old father from New Jersey who was just excavated after spending three days hooked up to a ventilator in intensive care units around the country. There are similar celebrations whenever a COVID nineteen patient gets off a ventilator. That's because
it's rare. About seventy of patients who are put on a ventilator don't survive. Luckily, Carlos was eventually able to breathe on his own again. What makes his story even more remarkable is the fact that he wasn't alone. His wife of thirty five years, Diana, was treated for COVID nineteen in the same hospital. She was intubated for ten days. When she was taken off the ventilator, she got a
cheering section and a song of her own. Diana remembers that fear she felt when she couldn't breathe before the ventilator was hooked up to breathe for her. She says she knew she was going to die. I gave up. I gave up. I called my husband, I stay bye to him. I can him more, I can breathe. The doctor came and said you need that vent to it. He said, don't, my god, And now they exclaiming what was going to happen to me? A lot of Stepida.
I don't on the spin, but in the same time I want to they put it right away because I cannot drink. Diana, who worked as a janitor and has underlying health problems, including two bouts of colon cancer, had spent a week suffering from dizziness, body aches, shortness of breath, and a fever as high as a hundred and five point three before being admitted to Somerset with COVID nineteen.
The infection warped her reality. She thought the nurses and doctors wearing masks and gowns were angels or something else. We spoke to Diana a week after she was discharged. Her son, Carlos Aguilar Jr. Helped with the translation, It's so scary. It's like um, like space because the favor, the high favor, you know, it makes you see paints. I say, okay, oh my god, espras Alien doctors explained that she was about to be intibated and connected to
a ventilator, but Diana was saying her goodbyes. I was so scared and everybody trying to slay me. What's going to happen to me? And they asked me, do you understand? Said yes, I understand. Only that I want is they helmet to bread you just wanted to hurry up. Diana was struggling to breathe because the infection and inflammation was taking hold in her lungs. Together, they caused to build up a fluid and thick mucus in the tiny air
sacks that are critical for the lungs to work. After you take a breath, delicate sacks known as aviola, take oxygen from the air and transfer it into your blood. From there it fuels every part of your body. For Diane Anna, the system wasn't functioning. Not enough oxygen was getting into her blood. After she was sedated, doctor slid a tube down her throat that was connected to the ventilator.
They adjusted the machine to deliver higher levels of oxygen than what's normally found in ambient air and raise the pressure to get it through her clogged lungs. Where you have a problem with ventilators who are working very hard trying to find Nobody in their wildest dreams would have ever thought that we need tens of thousands of ventilators. This is something that's very unique to this to what happened.
There was a near panic early in the pandemic about the number of ventilators available in the US hospitals have about sixty three thousand of them across the country. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at one point that New York alone might need forty thou of them. All The projections say you could have an eight packs needing a hundred and forty thou beds and about forty ventilators. Those are numbers. Device makers ramped up production, and even car
companies started making them. Hospitals we're seeing unprecedented demand. Only the most severe patients like Diana and Carlos need intubation, even with the help of a ventilator, many don't make it. For those who do survive extabation, that's not the end, far from it. After being weaned off life support, both Diana and Carlos have a long road to recovery. Part
of its stems from the ventilator itself. Many patients are given sedatives so they don't fight against the machine that's trying to breathe for them, but muscles that are used to working every day quickly start to atrophy. A condition known as post i c U syndrome can develop in up to half of patients, a widespread weakness that never fully resolves. For some it's as if they're paralyzed. For others, regular activities are exhausting. Duct or Michael Roderick's is the
medical director of Intensive Care at Somerset. He says some patients never regain their full strength. Sometimes when you're on the ventilator for two weeks, you're you're not able to go back to how you were prior to getting sick, and you need to go to rehab for some period of time to be able to do your activities of daily living. And it's not just physical activity. Sometimes memory and thinking clearly are also a challenge. You may have
some mild cognitive impairments after being on the ventilator. So, for instance, someone that worked as an accountant prior to being on the ventilator and being in the i c U, they may have a tough time going back to work. Someone uh an older person who was maybe independent and drove and took care of all their own activities, while they may not be able to go back to that
same lifestyle and they might need help. They might not be able to drive, they may not be able to shop and walk around the supermarket and carry out their own activities of daily living. Your overall condition may take some time to get back to its pre COVID pre I c U state, if if it even gets back to that free I c U state. That's why it's more important than ever to celebrate the winds right now. Diana and Carlos Aguilar have been together for thirty five years.
They both got COVID nineteen, they were both on ventilators, and they both beat the odds. Here comes the sun. Indeed, I feel like a god give me, give us another opportunity. I give thanks to God to to live again. And I feel lucky. I feel lucky. It's some miracle. I feel though they am here and I can't say my story that was Michelle Fake Cortes. Olivia Carville also helped with reporting on this story. And that's it for our
show today. For coverage of the outbreak from our bureaus around the world, please visit Bloomberg dot com, slash Coronavirus and as usual a favor. If you appreciate the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is hosted by Me Laura Carlson. The show was produced by
Me Tophor Forehaz, Jordan Gospoure, and Magnus Hendrickson. Today's main story was reported by Michelle fay Cortes and Olivia Carville. Original music by Leo sidrin Our. Editors are Francesca Levi and Rick Shine. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.