LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – The new video released Tuesday from Kaiser Permanente Downey and Fontana Medical Centers shows the stark reality of the latest wave of COVID-19 and the impact it is having on hospitals.
The new video shows patients lined up in the aisle beds and even more waiting outside while they are connected to the oxygen tanks under the tents. (Kaiser Permanent)
The video shows patients lined up in the aisle beds and even more waiting outside while they are connected to the oxygen tanks under the tents.
“I see people dying alone,” a health worker says in the video. “I see nurses exhausted and longing for their families.”
The video, posted by doctors across the state during a virtual roundtable on the pandemic, aims to encourage people to stop the spread of COVID-19 by staying home whenever possible.
“If people keep coming together for the next vacation, we’re going to paralyze the hospital system,” another health worker says in the video.
Greg A. Adams, president and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, spoke Tuesday in front of Downey Medical Center. He said that of the 278 patients currently admitted, 70% had been diagnosed with COVID-19. In the hospital’s intensive care unit, that number jumps to 95%.
“As the hospital bed count continued to decline, we simply will not be able to keep up if the rise in COVID continues to rise,” he said.
State health officials said the current increase in coronavirus seen in California comes from Thanksgiving celebrations and those that followed.
“We are now seeing today, through videos and testimonials, the real impact of what happened after Thanksgiving,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Agency for Human Services and Health. .
And when it came to stopping the spread of the virus, health officials again asked people to stay home and away from people as much as possible.
“We have a simple prescription that we’d like to prescribe to everyone: don’t share the air,” said Dr. Thomas McGinn, vice president of Dignity Health.
Kaiser Permanente, which operates 36 hospitals across the state, reported Tuesday that it had exceeded 100% of its usual patient capacity.