Dr. Juan Manuel Canela has invented a ventilator that enables a high flow of oxygen pressure to patients and reduces intubation by 96%. Dr. Canela is an obstetrics gynecologist at the Canela Medical Center, a leading private clinic in La Romana that is part of the Rescue Group network. At another Rescue Group medical center, the Centro Dr. Bournigal in Puerto Plata has become a pioneer in the use of ivermectin to treat hundreds of Covid-19 patients in the Dominican Republic successfully. He explained that the entire group has attended to nearly 2,000 cases of patients with Covid.
Dr. Canela said he created the machine concerned about the high mortality rate in patients that had to be intubated. Interviewed by Listín Diario in his office at Clínica Canela, the specialist says the CPAC gadget used for sleep apnea is adapted so it becomes a hyperoxygenation chamber. This allows the device to absorb oxygen at a volume of 85%. Patients can recover without intubation and all the risks that come with mechanical breathing.
He said that this high flow of oxygen-enriched air has yielded great results, with patients needing ventilation dropping considerably.
Before, he explains, 40% of patients went on mechanical ventilation. Now, only 5% and mortality has been very low.
“With a simple CPAC machine that costs between $300 and $400, we can produce a positive air pressure of 12 centimeters that prevents alveolar collapse. What we need most is oxygen,” he says.
He said one of the therapies they use at the center is to stimulate surfactant production with medication, which causes less pulmonary fibrosis to occur in such patients.
For the last 15 days, Dr. Canela revealed that all 35 beds at their two clinics in La Romana are in use.
The specialist said that people should not wait to suffer shortness of breath to seek medical attention. He says when a person has difficulty in breathing, this means there is already lung damage.
He explained that the symptoms of the common flu plus the loss of smell or taste are more than enough signs to see a doctor immediately.
Dr. Canela explained that the center has developed an algorithm of symptoms and signs with lab tests and tomography allowing them to diagnose with 99% certainty the clinical picture before the patient enters respiratory failure.
The La Romana medical center is part of the Rescue Group that has affiliate hospitals in Punta Cana and Puerto Plata.
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Listin Diario
9 July 2020