A Priest Died Because He “Donated” His Ventilator? Really? – By Dr Jeffrey Brushwood
![](https://seedus4268.gloriatv.net/storage1/lq18ioi880hnwbahh2x4viv0dz7a9qmeylhdil4.webp?scale=on&secure=hwlJ0QY1uPU5tlNLjTJTPw&expires=1720563346)
As a physician, I have troubles believing this story. A ventilator cannot simply be “donated” by people. It also takes a skilled team of doctors and nurses to operate.
I’d like to get to the bottom of this story, but I find the details are sorely lacking.
Did the priest have some sort of nebuliser device which asthmatics use? A nebuliser simply pumps air through a pipe into a mask which contains saline or medicated nebuliser solution.
However, this is NOT a ventilator and it does not provide assisted breathing.
A ventilator is in an intensive care unit. The team of doctors decides who gets it and who doesn’t. NO ONE, not even the Pope, will make that choice.
Even in peacetime, it’s a clinical decision. If faced with a choice between ventilating an older person or a younger person, presuming the younger person isn’t dying of some illness in the next two months, I will and all of my colleagues too will ALWAYS choose the younger patient.
Even if the older person asked to be ventilated.
This conversation is an excellent opportunity to discuss moral choices. Thus, people are getting an object lesson on the type of decisions doctors face everyday.