I live in Portland, Oregon. This morning, I visited a hospital for tests needed before major neck surgery next month. I spoke at length with a nurse practitioner, who made no secret of her utter frustration with people who refuse to get vaccinated. "I can't believe we're going through this again," she said, shaking head.
I live in Portland, Oregon. This morning, I visited a hospital for tests needed before major neck surgery next month. I spoke at length with a nurse practitioner, who made no secret of her utter frustration with people who refuse to get vaccinated. "I can't believe we're going through this again," she said, shaking head.
The hospital is packed with Covid patients, most unvaccinated from rural counties and who don't understand that they could be depriving local residents of emergency medical care. She said most of the deaths are people in their 20s and 30s. And, as we've all heard before, some critically ill Covid patients plead for vaccination, only to be told it's too late.
There's a chance my surgery could be delayed because of the Covid surge, she said. If it isn't, my wife must drop me off at the hospital and wait not there but at home to hear from the surgeon. In the end, that's not a big deal unless something goes awry.
Like many critically ill Covid patients, I will be intubated. Of course, some of them never wake up. I will but won't remember the invasive procedure, though a sore throat will be a stark reminder.
Let's face it; hospitals are "concentrators" of sick folk. Hospitals go to great lengths to protect one patient from another, and there is no published evidence I know of claiming that you are more likely to contract COVID by entering a hospital than you are by entering a grocery store. Masks, distancing, hand washing are effective deterrents. Vaccination protects you very well when you enter that environment for elective health care. But, 90% of the disproportionate occupancy of hospital beds and ICU beds by COVID patients would be avoided by preemptive vaccination. Prolonged ventilation of severely injured lungs leads to tracheostomies, durable IV access, feeding tubes and other procedures, which means that critically ill COVID patients are entering operating rooms and other procedural suites as well. A stressed health care delivery system is not the place I'd prefer to receive care if I had a choice in the matter.
Today, Oregon governor Kate Brown reinstated a recommendation for use of masks in outdoor public places due to the Delta varient surge here. Oregon is in the mid-to-upper ranks of states with vaccinated populations, but absolutely not immune to the impacts of a viral surge on the health care industry, particularly hospitals, where the sick are concentrated. An increasing number of reports document breakthrough infections in vaccinated persons, but, thankfully, generally not serious enough to result in hospitalization. My former associates testify to the realities of hospital based practice in our major metropolitan hospitals. I actually do have some insight into the situation; and no hospital is spared. It is not unsafe to enter a hospital, particularly if you are vaccinated, but you'll be in proximity to more ill persons with known COVID than elsewhere in public.
I did, in fact, get your point. If you read carefully, you'll distinguish what I said from fear-mongering. My goal was not to scare anyone, rather to further illuminate consequences of decisions made by persons who haven't availed themselves of vaccination at this point where they are broadly available. The first half of my initial comment today established what I think about the overall safety of entering a hospital. The second half spoke to the level of stress and fatigue that is a current reality in hospitals. You are free to do what you wish, think what you wish, feel what you wish to feel about the facts.
I live in Portland, Oregon. This morning, I visited a hospital for tests needed before major neck surgery next month. I spoke at length with a nurse practitioner, who made no secret of her utter frustration with people who refuse to get vaccinated. "I can't believe we're going through this again," she said, shaking head.
The hospital is packed with Covid patients, most unvaccinated from rural counties and who don't understand that they could be depriving local residents of emergency medical care. She said most of the deaths are people in their 20s and 30s. And, as we've all heard before, some critically ill Covid patients plead for vaccination, only to be told it's too late.
There's a chance my surgery could be delayed because of the Covid surge, she said. If it isn't, my wife must drop me off at the hospital and wait not there but at home to hear from the surgeon. In the end, that's not a big deal unless something goes awry.
Like many critically ill Covid patients, I will be intubated. Of course, some of them never wake up. I will but won't remember the invasive procedure, though a sore throat will be a stark reminder.
Michael, hope you will post here a day or two before you go to the hospital. I would like us to be in touch. Salud!
Thank you. Will do.
Let's face it; hospitals are "concentrators" of sick folk. Hospitals go to great lengths to protect one patient from another, and there is no published evidence I know of claiming that you are more likely to contract COVID by entering a hospital than you are by entering a grocery store. Masks, distancing, hand washing are effective deterrents. Vaccination protects you very well when you enter that environment for elective health care. But, 90% of the disproportionate occupancy of hospital beds and ICU beds by COVID patients would be avoided by preemptive vaccination. Prolonged ventilation of severely injured lungs leads to tracheostomies, durable IV access, feeding tubes and other procedures, which means that critically ill COVID patients are entering operating rooms and other procedural suites as well. A stressed health care delivery system is not the place I'd prefer to receive care if I had a choice in the matter.
Today, Oregon governor Kate Brown reinstated a recommendation for use of masks in outdoor public places due to the Delta varient surge here. Oregon is in the mid-to-upper ranks of states with vaccinated populations, but absolutely not immune to the impacts of a viral surge on the health care industry, particularly hospitals, where the sick are concentrated. An increasing number of reports document breakthrough infections in vaccinated persons, but, thankfully, generally not serious enough to result in hospitalization. My former associates testify to the realities of hospital based practice in our major metropolitan hospitals. I actually do have some insight into the situation; and no hospital is spared. It is not unsafe to enter a hospital, particularly if you are vaccinated, but you'll be in proximity to more ill persons with known COVID than elsewhere in public.
I did, in fact, get your point. If you read carefully, you'll distinguish what I said from fear-mongering. My goal was not to scare anyone, rather to further illuminate consequences of decisions made by persons who haven't availed themselves of vaccination at this point where they are broadly available. The first half of my initial comment today established what I think about the overall safety of entering a hospital. The second half spoke to the level of stress and fatigue that is a current reality in hospitals. You are free to do what you wish, think what you wish, feel what you wish to feel about the facts.