Rihanna sent her dad a ventilator when he was diagnosed with COVID-19, but breathing machines are highly technical and need medics to operate them

• Rihanna reportedly sent a ventilator to her father's home in Barbados after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, along with other resources for his treatment.
• Ronald Fenty has since recovered, and he said he did not yet use the ventilator.
• Ventilators and other breathing machines are a primary method of treating COVID-19 patients but they are complex, technical equipment that need to be set up and monitored by medical professionals.
• If used incorrectly, ventilators can be harmful, and there may be more effective, less risky ways to treat coronavirus patients.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Rihanna's 66-year-old father, Ronald Fenty, was afraid for his life when he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Being the parent of a pop star has its perks, though. Rihanna, who real name is Robyn Fenty, immediately sent a ventilator, and other resources, to his Barbados home to help him recover from COVID-19, he said in an interview with The Sun.

Ventilators, medical machines that assist respiratory patients in breathing, are in short supply across the world, since they're needed to used to treat patients with severe respiratory problem such as those caused by COVID-19.

Not everyone has access to these machines (although Rihanna has also donated money, medical equipment, and other resources to help organizations battling against the coronavirus).

But, more importantly, they require medical expertise to use, so even the most well-connected of fans should not rush to get one into their home.

"People are under the impression that, if I put you on a breathing machine, it's going to do everything for you," New York City ER doctor Cleavon Gilman previously told Business Insider. "That's not true, you have to tell the machine how many times to breathe, how large are the breaths going to be, how much oxygen? Even putting in a breathing tube is hard, you've gotta paralyze a person."

Ventilators require the insertion of a breathing tube

In order for the breathing machine to work, the patient needs to be hooked up with a breathing tube that's inserted through their nose or mouth and into the throat. And in some cases, if patients will need the machine long-term or has blockage in their throat, it requires a surgical incision in the neck through which the ventilator is connected, according to the American Thoracic Society.

Both of those processes can potentially cause side effects such as injuries or infections.

They can also be risky for healthcare staff, since the procedure requires close contact with the infected patients, exposing medical workers to tiny, contagious viral particles. To safely intubate COVID-19 patients, the procedure has to be done quickly and carefully, and medics have to wear sufficient personal protective equipment, according to recent expert recommendations published on the subject.

The ventilator can also require use of muscle relaxing medications for the intubation process and sometimes for the use of the machine itself, so the ventilator can do the work of breathing for the patient.

Ventilators are reserved for the worst cases of respiratory illness, and often patients still don't survive

Given the risks and work to keep patients on a ventilator, they're often used for patients with the worst symptoms of respiratory illness.

And even if everything goes right, a ventilator isn't a cure-all: 40% to 50% of patients with severe respiratory issues, die while on ventilators, Business Insider previously reported.

That number could be even higher for coronavirus patients — up to 80% of coronavirus patients on ventilators in New York City died, according to reports for the Associated Press.

For that reason, some doctors have actually begun to turn away from ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, looking for alternatives that may have fewer risks and better outcomes.

"We know that mechanical ventilation is not benign," Dr. Eddy Fan, an expert on respiratory treatment at Toronto General Hospital, told the AP. "One of the most important findings in the last few decades is that medical ventilation can worsen lung injury — so we have to be careful how we use it."

Read more:

How medical workers decontaminate their clothes when they get home from treating coronavirus patients, and why you don't have to do the same

Everything we know about masks and the coronavirus, from who should wear them to how to make one

JK Rowling shared a video of a doctor's breathing techniques to help with coronavirus symptoms. Experts say it's good advice.

Read the original article on Insider