If you need a ventilator for COVID-19, odds are 50-50 you'll survive. But doctors are learning more every day

PHILADELPHIA — Mike DeWan, 43, of Worcester; Jim Cracas, 51, of Chester Springs; and Raveena Brown, 62, of Bear, Del., each had the bad luck to get a horrible case of the coronavirus, so bad that they needed to spend days — in DeWan’s case, weeks — on a ventilator, a machine that forced oxygen-rich air into their fluid-filled lungs.All strong and healthy before their illnesses, they also had the good luck to survive. About half of coronavirus patients who need ventilators die.They now have one more thing in common: None remembers anything about being on the machine that has been the focus of s...

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