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.