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Next potential shortage: Drugs needed to run ventilators

Next potential shortage: Drugs needed to run ventilators
Posted at 3:07 PM, Apr 10, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-10 17:07:25-04

NEW YORK (AP) — As hospitals scour the country for scarce ventilators, pharmacists are beginning to sound an alarm that could become just as urgent.

Drugs needed to use ventilators are running low even as demand is surging.

When doctors put critically ill patients on ventilators, they rely on sedatives, pain killers and, at times, paralytics.

Demand for the drugs rose 73% in March.

But pharmacists say supplies are dangerously low and that ventilators are inoperable without them.