Some hope for those ending up in ICU on a ventilator (where survival rate drops to 50%)
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canadian-team-treating-covid-19-patients-with-dialysis-sees-very-positive-early-signs-1.4946351
"It was becoming very clear from their reports that, although the first part of the disease is a terrible pneumonia … the second part of the disease, for people who are very ill in ICU, is actually partly to do with inflammation," McIntyre said. The researchers theorized that they might be able to combat that inflammation by using dialysis machines to remove inflammation-fighting white blood cells from the body, chemically treat them and return them to the body.
"Hopefully at that point [they] hone in on the various organs that are full of inflammation and try to control that," McIntyre said.
Forty critically ill COVID-19 patients are currently being monitored by the team, with half receiving standard care for the disease and the other half being subjected to the dialysis treatment. If the latter group's blood pressure stabilizes and need for blood pressure medication subsides, it will be a sign that the treatment is working.
Should the dialysis-based method prove successful, McIntyre said, it could become widespread at little cost and with relative ease, as the necessary equipment is "already available in pretty much every ICU … around the world." The treatment could potentially also be viable for anyone who develops sepsis while in an ICU, McIntyre said.
Sounds logical, maybe it will help.
