Chapel Hill, NC – Nearly a quarter of North Carolina hospital patients received treatment for COVID-19 on Thursday, including 39% of those in intensive care units.
The recent rise in cases, fueled by the Delta variant of the coronavirus and the state’s delayed vaccination rate, has reduced hospital resources across the state, especially health workers working in ICUs.
“I think we’re in crisis mode,” Kat Phillips, a surgical ICU nurse at UNC Medical Center, told WRAL News during an exclusive look inside the unit. “Nurses feel it. The hospital feels it. Other patients feel it.”
Eleven COVID-19 patients were in the surgical ICU on Thursday, and another 13 combined in the medical ICU and the hospital’s pediatric ICU.
“We’re definitely treating some of the sickest patients in the hospital right now,” Phillips said. “At first, it was scary. Now, it’s just my daily, normal job.”
Dr. Benny Joyner, head of pediatric health care, said three patients with COVID-19 were in the ICU, including a 2-week-old baby.
“Kids get sick with COVID,” Joyner said. “Children can have a respiratory tube placed in their throat with COVID. Children can have long-term consequences with COVID. COVID affects children.”
Compared to previous waves of infected patients during the pandemic, Phillips said, ICU patients are now sicker and younger. Many use fans, heart-lung and dialysis machines to maintain the internal functions of their bodies when fighting the virus.
ICU staff work 12-hour shifts, plus overtime if necessary, in order to save as many patients as possible. But most will die: ICU staff say only 40% of COVID-19 patients accessing the ICU survive at this time.
“Just in the last few weeks of work, I lost two patients I cared for,” Phillips said. “I think it’s a lot of death, and it’s the new normal, a lot of death out there.”
“It’s heartbreaking and a lot of patients are really young and we see them come down,” agreed Dr. Trista Reid, a surgeon who worked at the ICU. “It’s very, very discouraging. There’s a lot of burns. A lot of people get tired and exhausted.”
Medical professionals said their efforts to save the lives of these patients would be easier if more people were vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“It’s exhausting and frustrating at the same time because we have the vaccine available that can prevent this kind of disease,” Phillips said. “Viously, obviously, it won’t stop you from getting the virus, but it can stop you from reaching this last effort to save your life.”
“My son just turned 12 in August and his birthday present was a vaccine against COVID,” Joyner said.