Just to clarify, you are talking about forcing air through a tube into the mouth, not through a mask over the mouth. Sometimes, there's confusion between the type where they put a tube into the mouth vs the one that only uses a mask. Both force air into the lungs.
My mother was on a ventilator, tube in the lungs for 10 days; however being a senior, I was told by the pneumonologist it would take longer for her to wake up. She was given one dose of propofol so she wouldn't pull the tubing out.
He told me she would wake up soon when I saw her twitching. She did following two days of twitching.
She doesn't remember a thing about being on it except the time she woke up. Of course, she said she wanted it taken out pronto and signaled the nurse. It was taken off, nurses aspirated saliva from her mouth a few times and she was discharged the next day. She did not have problems breathing. She was able to eat soft whole foods, then normal eating after a day or two.
She did not need oxygen after that.
She had septicemia and flatlined in the ER. Fortunately, I was standing next to her, immediately called the nurse and code blue was administered.
Different than heart surgery, but equally as life threatening.
At 49, probably, he will wake up much sooner unless doctors want to keep him on it longer.
My father had been on the other type, forced air through a mask. No tubing. He was awake and said it was very uncomfortable, but better than not being able to breathe. I was with him most of the time during and afterwards. Didn't see gasping for breath afterwards. He did need additional oxygen after that, but eventually got off of it.