The Trump administration is telling hospitals they can split ventilators between two patients and is escalating calls to scrap elective surgeries, as federal officials try to limit care rationing in facilities lacking the critical breathing machines.
New federal guidelines on so-called ventilator splitting — an idea that’s been used extremely rarely in emergency situations — emphasizes it should “only be considered as an absolute last resort” for hospitals swamped by coronavirus patients. But it underscores concerns that hospitals could soon be faced with challenging ethical decisions about how to prioritize which patients receive life-saving equipment.
The last-resort measure offered by Trump health officials runs counter to the administration’s previous assurances that states would have enough ventilators, despite governors’ consistent warnings about shortages. President Donald Trump has criticized New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s request for 30,000 ventilators, and Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, turned heads in the public health community last week when she downplayed concerns about ventilator shortages.