[Expert Solution]: A patient is being ventilated with a PEEP…

A patient is being ventilated with a PEEP of 10 cm H2O and an FiO2 of 0.4. The arterial blood gas results show that the patient remains hypoxemic, and the respiratory therapist increases the PEEP to 18 cm H2O, maintaining the FO2 at 0.4. The patient’s static compliance changes from 28 to 22 mL/cm H2O just after this change. The respiratory therapist should do which of the following? a. Decrease PEEP to 10 cm H20 and increase the FrO2 to 0.6. b. Decrease PEEP to 15 cm H2O and measure static compliance. c. Keep PEEP at 18 cm H2O and increase the FO2 to 0.6. d. Increase PEEP to 20 cm H2O and measure static compliance.