Secondary Bacterial Infection Killed Many Ventilated COVID-19 Patients: Study

Breathing tubes hang next to a man with COVID-19 on a ventilator at a Stamford Hospital Intensive Care Unit in Stamford, Connecticut, on April 24, 2020. John Moore/Getty Images

Secondary bacterial pneumonia killed many COVID-19 patients who were on a ventilator, according to a new study.

Researchers from Northwestern University in Illinois looked at data from 585 mechanically-ventilated patients with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure. Of those patients, 190 had COVID-19. The patients were in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.