Episode 2: The History of Ventilators and Sedation
How did sedation become an assumption with mechanical ventilation? Dr. Terry Clemmer shares his experiences during the founding of critical care through the past 50 years and what the first mechanical ventilators were like .
As we realize how much ventilators have advanced for patient comfort, we must ask ourselves,
“Isn’t it time for our sedation practices to catch up with our technology?”
Dr. Clemmer was a visionary decades ago and listened to the concerns of a nurse that had seen the long term effects of deep sedation and immobility. One of his many greatest successes was in supporting the development of a team that allowed patients to be awake and walking on the ventilator.
As we understand how sedation has gone from necessity to habit and the harm that it causes patients,
are we moved to change?
