UF Health medical leaders express concern over rising death rate from childhood COVID

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – UF Health officials concluded a teleconference with local politicians on Tuesday, filling them up where the city is with the COVID-19 pandemic, including local cases and how the virus now affects children.

At UF Health as of Tuesday, 127 people are in the hospital with COVID-19, with 44 of these patients in the ICU. At the five Baptist hospitals, 294 patients are being treated for COVID-19 with 89 in the ICU. At the three Ascension St. hospitals. Vincent, 225 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 and 97 in the ICU. At Flagler Health, 51 patients have COVID-19 with 13 in the ICU and eight with ventilators.

Although the figures seem to be coming down, the ICUs are still full at around 75%. Currently, 17 patients at UF Health are with ventilators and the average stay of a COVID-19 patient is nine days.

“We’re better off than we were a few weeks ago, but our cases are still stable and not dwindling,” said Russ Armistead, CEO of UF Health Jacksonville. “Hopefully we don’t have another climb after the holidays.”

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The percentage of COVID-19 patients in the hospital who are not vaccinated has dropped from 90s to 83% at UF Health, officials said.

Dr. Mobeen Rathore, a leading pediatrician who treats infectious diseases at both UF Health and Wolfson Children’s Hospital, confirmed during Tuesday’s call that the recent death of a teenager in St. Louis County. Johns was the result of COVID.

And he said some kids get very sick. As of Tuesday, Wolfson had 14 children on COVID treatment with five in the ICU. Three cases of new children were admitted to hospital on Monday.

“Children get sick. The children are hospitalized. Children get sick and go to the ICU, intubate, carry a ventilator, and even go to the ECMO, which is a cardiac lung machine, a kind of last-ditch effort to support these children. . Unfortunately the children die. In fact, many of you probably heard the news, there is a 17-year-old who died in St. Louis County. Johns only the last few days, so I think we need to be very safe and understand that children can get seriously ill. And I can tell you that during the nearly 18 months that ended in June we had three deaths in our area in children. It is a death every six months. And only in July and August did we have four deaths in children, so that’s two deaths a month. “

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Rathore said that in most cases, children who get sick with COVID recover, both those who end up in the ICU have serious problems with their heart and lungs. They are damaged by the virus and, as we have learned, some do not survive.

“Protecting our children is the most important thing we can do,” Rathore said. “I hope future generations remember us as people who protected their children and not as a group of people who put them at risk.”