Severe pneumonia, respiratory failure, now in the ICU with a ventilator.

What I'm telling you now is only what I can articulate as an ICU nurse. I've been working in the ICU for five years, and I've seen a lot of patients with severe pneumonia who ended up in respiratory failure. The doctor suggested intubation, you should consider this, because the patient can not cough up phlegm, accumulation in the lungs, this will aggravate the spread of inflammation in the lungs for a long time, and can not discharge the phlegm, mechanical ventilation (that is, ventilator-assisted respiration) will be impeded, your father is using a non-invasive ventilator, right? Your father is on a non-invasive ventilator, right? It's the kind of ventilator where a mask is fastened over the nose and mouth and then the patient is ventilated. If an endotracheal tube is inserted, sputum can be suctioned from the tube to help the patient get rid of secretions smoothly. However, there are disadvantages, first, intubation is very uncomfortable, there are two kinds of intubation, nasal intubation and oral intubation, nasal intubation is relatively more comfortable, but if the patient is intolerant of intubation, the doctor will definitely give sedatives to calm the patient down. Secondly, after intubation, an invasive ventilator should be used to assist breathing, which is also very difficult, generally for the ventilator works on the principle of positive-pressure ventilation, think about blowing vigorously into your lungs, that taste is never good, but if the patient's independent respiration is too laborious, it can only be assisted by the ventilator. Third, the intubation process may be dangerous, the vagus nerve is strongly stimulated may lead to cardiac arrest, but this is only possible, we can not do it because of fear, is not it? Any invasive treatment is a double-edged sword, with both advantages and disadvantages. Based on your father's condition, in my opinion, we should decide whether to intubate or not, taking into account his tolerance and arterial blood gas test results, as well as the issue of phlegm. If we don't intubate, but only suction phlegm through the mouth and nose, we will never be able to suction the phlegm in the trachea, and to put it in the vernacular, the phlegm will not be suctioned out, and then eventually it will be blocked, and we will not be able to breathe.

This is just my personal opinion, and again, I'm just a nurse.

I hope this helps a little bit.