Rural hospital overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and staff resignations | SOTs

Source:- Newzee


Inside the emergency room of the small Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, coronavirus patients on stretchers line the corridors. There are no ICU beds available.
Outside, a new tent has been set up to screen and test people for COVID-19 when they arrive. If they test positive, they are admitted to hospital inside; if they are negative, patients are taken to a makeshift ward outside.
Mendy Hickey is the executive director of acute care at the hospital and says she's seen a shift in demographics in recent weeks.
"It's not all of the older generation that are here sick and dying in the hospital, there are a lot of young people," she said, as she struggled to contain her emotions. "We had a 28 year-old, we had a 36 year-old, we had a 34-year old, that you have to walk their family in to see them for the last time and they have young kids. It's such an awful thing."
Kari McGuire is the supervisor of palliative care at the hospital and admitted she has "probably seen more deaths in this last month than I have almost in my whole career."
She said "Our job, I think, has significantly changed. You know, I'm eyes right now. We're used to being able to hug families, we're used to being able to having that one-on-one interaction with patients and so much is now done over the phone so I'm now a voice sometimes on the other end of the phone calling families and with the increase of deaths, it's made our job in paleative care much more difficult."
The pandemic is taking its toll on medical staff, with many unable to cope with the emotional impact.
Hickey said "We've had physicians retire, we've had lab staff quit, we've had nurses quit, we've had C&As quit, monitor techs quit, multiple people go on stress leaves during this time where they still have their job but they're on a leave of absence.
She added "We've canceled surgeries so we have O.R. staff nurses up here helping run codes, we have anaesthesia technicians helping us do chest compressions in rooms so we have enough people to get it done. It's really hard on the staff that's here. Very hard."
Some restaurants and gyms in the area have re-opened, defying state protocols, which may have increased the number of COVID-19 infections.
"It really gets to me when people say that it's political or that it's a fake disease or that the Democrats this or the Republicans that," said Hickey. "I guarantee that the patients in these beds and the family members that are watching their loved ones couldn't care less what political party they belong with or who voted for who or what happened with what. I wish people would just take it seriously and believe us. It's not a new story. It's definitely not fake. It's very, very real."