ROUEN, France (AP) — A renewed crush of COVID-19 cases is again forcing intensive care units across France to grapple with the macabre mathematics of how to make space for thousands of critically ill patients. Having learned from the bitter experience of the early months of the pandemic, French hospitals now fight relentlessly to keep patients awake and off mechanical ventilators, if at all possible. Instead, ICU teams are using persuasion to convince patients to stick as long as possible with less-invasive breathing masks and nose tubes. While mechanical ventilation is unavoidable for some patients, it’s a step taken less systematically now than at the start of the pandemic. Doctors say it can be traumatic and carries risks.
