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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'We're leaving the hospital sometimes in tears': Arizona doctors worry as ICUs fill
ABC News Radio | June 30, 2020
By DR. MARK ABDELMALEK, OLIVIA RUBIN, KAYLEE HARTUNG and ROBERT ZEPEDA, ABC News
(PHOENIX) Hospitals in Arizona are seeing an intense wave of new coronavirus cases, doctors at the Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix told ABC News on Monday, and it is filling up their intensive care units and pushing their nurses to the brink.
Dr. Jennifer OHea, a Banner ICU doctor overseeing 100 patients, said the situation exploded towards the end of May and has snowballed into a dire situation.Never, never, ever have I seen this many patients in our ICU, OHea, who has worked at the hospital for 22 years, said. We were using ICUs that weve never used before. Rooms that were vacant were now using as ICUs.
Dr. Marjorie Bessel, the chief clinical officer for the Banner Health System, told ABC News she has been concerned for weeks.
... Patients are dying, patients are suffering, theyre on ventilators for weeks. Families cannot be here, OHea said. There are patients begging me not to put them on a breathing machine because they know that they might die, they might never talk to their families again.
Still, the hospital is participating in a state-run surge plan that sees patients transferred in helicopters and ambulances from one hospital to another when capacity is full. As of today, just two of Banners 17 Arizona hospitals can accept patients from the surge line because of capacity issues relating to bed availability and staffing an indicator of just how strained the system truly is.
http://sandhillsexpress.com/abc_health/wersquore-leaving-the-hospital-sometimes-in-tears-arizona-doctors-worry-as-icus-fill-abcid36294377/
Good God.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)rich people must stay rich.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)Because wearing a mask is showing disrespect for Dear Leader.
Initech
(100,076 posts)We've seen all of that under the Trump administration. Hell we've seen all four since Coronavirus began. We're in the suffering phase and we may be suffering for a very long time.
vsrazdem
(2,177 posts)O2 concentrator in case I ever needed it. I never had the need, but my daughter who is a nurse and lives with me said 2 months ago, "We need to get that out of storage just in case." We got it and got all new filters just in case we need it. It is getting really bad here, and I definitely do not want to be anywhere near an ER unless I am pretty much at death's door.