While state and local governments struggle to procure life-saving ventilators, hospitals, and health care facilities across the nation fight to keep COVID-19 patients alive---but for most patients put on the breathing machines, the chances of surviving are very slim.

Health experts estimate one-third of all COVID-19 patients on the oxygen-providing apparatus survive. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he expected that only 20 percent of coronavirus victims "will ever recover."

For many, the ventilators are their last chance at living.

The breathing machine does not cure the patients of their illness. It can, however, give them the support they need until treatments work or their bodies recover from the disease.

At a hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, medical workers celebrate small victories such as a successful "extubations" when patients are finally taken off of the equipment.



'More harm than good'

A ventilator, also known as a respirator, is a piece of medical equipment that helps people breathe. The machine helps the patient get oxygen into the lungs and get rid of carbon dioxide out of the body.

A tube is inserted through the patient's mouth or nose and into the windpipe in a process known as "intubation." The ventilator then blows gas into the patient's lungs.

COVID-19 patients remain connected to the breathing machine for ten days on average. Patients who have pre-existing medical conditions with their kidneys or other organs stay intubated far longer.

While ventilators do provide mechanical support to critically ill patients, they can sometimes allow germs to enter the lungs, causing infection and further complications.

Some hospitals have reported high death rates for COVID-19 patients put on respirators, leading numerous doctors to forgo using the breathing machines completely.

A report from the United Kingdom showed 66 percent of all coronavirus patients on ventilators die. A study conducted in China said 86 percent died.

Health experts have not found the reason. It may have something to do with the condition of the patient when they were put on the machine. Some health professionals are worried the machine could possibly be igniting a harmful immune system reaction.



'The only choice'

Dr. Marjorie Jenkins, a dean of a South Carolina medical institution, said without ventilators, patients are also likely to die of painful suffocation that lasts hours, perhaps days.

Patients who smoked and suffered from underlying ailments are more likely to require breathing apparatus as their disease gets worse.

With the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, some hospitals turned to create their own makeshift breathing machines.

At the University of Mississipi Medical Center (UUMC), health professionals have begun building respirators using garden hoses, lamp timers, and electronic valves---supplies easily found at hardware stores. Dr. Charles Robertson, a pediatric anesthesiologist at the UMMC, is the brains behind the $100 ventilator.

The Trump Administration recently offered a $490M contract to General Motors to build 30,000 ventilators. Ford has also pledged to build more than 50,000 ventilators over the next three months.



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