Fogbow

Hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients is dwindling in some parts of Ohio as the respiratory illness continues to rage due to the delta variant.

Lucia Walinchus, executive director of the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism, or Eye of Ohio, said hospitals in Dayton, Akron and Toledo have been hard hit. Recently, Dayton had only 32 medical/surgical beds available, Toledo had 10 and Akron only had just nine available.

“On August 11, we had 353 COVID patients, so that’s about 7% of ICU capacity,” Walinchus said. “Fast forward two weeks and yesterday we had almost double the number of COVID patients which was almost 13% capacity.”

COVID-19 is overwhelming Florida funeral homes as the state’s system for dealing with death buckles under a new surge in coronavirus cases. Local station WFLA reports that pre-cremation storage areas for bodies at more than a dozen funeral homes across the state are full, with corpses stacked to the ceiling. Multiple funeral homes declined to speak to the news station, citing a recent crush of work. Those that did said their workload is higher than it was when the nation hit its pandemic peak in January. Mike Marchetti, a manager for Newcomer Funeral Homes in Orlando, said, “The family comes in and they say we would like to have the funeral on Friday and we have to tell them ‘I’m sorry we can’t accommodate a funeral on Friday because our schedule is full.’”

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Thu Aug 26, 2021 7:18 pm A child under 1 year old died of covid in Louisiana yesterday. It was their 11th pediatric death.

MCPHERSON, Kan. (Video: KWCH via CNN) —
When a routine medical procedure went wrong, Robert Van Pelt was life-flighted to an emergency hospital with a cardiac team.

But when he got there, all ICU beds were taken by patients with COVID-19.

The 44-year-old eventually died after waiting three days for a bed to become available.

Ambulances in Kansas are being diverted from hospitals as unvaccinated patients overwhelm intensive care units, KWCH reports.

"There are a lot of people who don't believe the hospitals are full," Liz Hamer, a friend of the Van Pelt family, told the news station. "It's really hard to listen to when one of my friend's husbands was lying in the hospital dying because he couldn't get the treatment he needed because the beds are full."

Hamer said Kansas hospitals unsuccessfully reached out to 20 states in search of an ICU bed for Van Pelt's needs.

"The family will never know if having an open hospital bed, or open neuro ICU bed specifically, in any of the 20 states could have found urgent care, they'll never know if that could have kept him here. And that's something that's extra hard for them to carry right now," she said.

Hamer said Van Pelt's family wants the public to know about the current state of hospitals and "wants people need to understand this is a real present danger for families."

"Car accidents happen. Heart attacks happen. Trauma happens and there may not be care for you in the hospital if we can't do something to get this under control," Hamer said.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a busy day for the transfer center at Mercy Hospital meant they got about 20 calls. Now, they're getting anywhere from 60 to 70 a day.

Mercy Hospital is getting calls from other hospitals in Texas, Kansas and even Louisiana. All of them were hopeful Mercy has an open ICU bed.

“They have more than doubled their volume in request for patient transfers. You just feel deflated. I've literally not been able to help anyone get where they need to be,” said Britini Humphreys, RN, Transfer Center Manager.

The calls come from smaller hospitals who need to transfer a patient to a larger hospital Like Mercy that has the resources to treat the patient. Many of them needing critical care.

In some cases, it can be a lifesaving transfer. But with COVID-19 hospitalizations taking up 41% of available ICU beds, according to the state, it’s getting harder and harder to find the space.

spiduh wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 3:27 pm Unvaxxed Covid patients (without valid medical exemption + anything else that makes sense) should be LAST priority, they should lose their beds to anyone coming in for any reason that needs an ICU bed. I mean it. These people have made their choices, they should be forced to live (and die) with them. Their body, their choice, now they have to face the consequences of their actions. Not force everyone else to deal with them.

spiduh wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 3:27 pm Unvaxxed Covid patients (without valid medical exemption + anything else that makes sense) should be LAST priority, they should lose their beds to anyone coming in for any reason that needs an ICU bed. I mean it. These people have made their choices, they should be forced to live (and die) with them. Their body, their choice, now they have to face the consequences of their actions. Not force everyone else to deal with them.
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