What Oxygen Is To Life, Such Is Hope To The Meaning Of Life, But Oxygen Is Our Hope Now!!
How The Respiratory System Works
We breathe by contracting our diaphragm which expands our chest cavity, this allows air to be drawn in, inflating the alveoli (millions of small sacks inside our lungs) each of these sacks have Blood Capillaries around them which gives the sacks the CO2 (CarbonDiOxide) and taking O2 (Oxygen) from the sacks and when the diaphragm relaxes the CO2 is let out with so many other gas particles.
The Invention Of The Ventilator
In the 16th century a Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius described how a suffacating animal could be kept alive by inserting a tube into its trachea and blowing air to inflate it's lungs. In 1555 this procedure didn't warrant much claim, but today (400 years later) Vesalius's is known as the first description of mechanical Ventilation a crusial practice in morden medicine.
When Do We Need The Ventilator?
When the Respiratory System is working correctly the process of respiration will happen automatically. But sometimes some conditions can stop the respiratory system from working properly like Sleep Apnea (which will stop the diaphragm from relaxing and contracting), Asthma (the walls of the airway might inflate not allowing the oxygen to get in) or Pneumonia (often triggered by bacteria or viruses) this will kill the lung cells and triggering immune response which will cause serious damage to the lungs. So you will not be able to breathe properly and That's when you will need a Ventilator.
What Will A Ventilator Do?
A Ventilator will take over the job of the lungs. It can take the oxygen to small airways. There are to ways this can be done:
1) Positive Pressure Ventilation (pumping the oxygen into the body with a pipe or a face mask)
2) Negative Pressure Ventilation (sealing their body in a tight box leaving the head alone out to make the lung inflate on it's own by pumping the air from inside and making it airless)
in the late 19th century the doctors mostly focussed on negative pressure ventilation doctors either put them in a tight wooden box or a specialized sealed room. Later a portable metal sealed box with an air pump, it was called the iron lung. The iron lung was a standard fixture in hospitals but the iron lung prevented the patient's movement and didn't allow the doctor to check the patient now and then. So from 1960 they started to use positive pressure ventilation. For mild cases doctors would fit a face mask on the patient's mouth and send pressurized air into it, however for serious cases doctors would send a tube into the trachea and an electronic ventilator would take over the lungs process. The latest ventilators will also check patients breathing levels etc... and can adjust the amount of air going into the lungs. But continuous ventilation can cause lifetime lung damage so it is not a standard procedure but a last minute precaution. Ventilators are expensive and need so much training to be operated so most hospitals only have some of them but at emergencies like covid we need more low cost, easy to operate and easy to transport ventilators.
Ventilators are essential but too much ventilation will cause lifetime damage in the lungs and at times like the covid pandemic ventilators are so important.
Share your experiences in the comments.
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