[ad_1]
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (AP) – Daryl Barker was passionately against a COVID-19 vaccination, as were his loved ones. Then 10 of them fell ill and Barker, just 31, ended up in an intensive care unit in Missouri, fighting for his life.
This is a scenario that is repeated over and over again at the Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, where 22 people died from the virus in the first 23 days of July. Many other hospitals in Missouri are fighting the same battle, the result of the rapidly spreading delta variant invading a state with one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, especially in rural areas.
The Associated Press gained access to the interior of Lake Regional, where just two months ago no one was hospitalized with the virus. Doctors, nurses and hospital staff in the heart of the Lake of the Ozarks region are now facing an onslaught of COVID-19 patients – some of them struggling to stay alive.
“We’ve had a big wave of the delta virus here. Lots of admissions, lots of people who are very sick and dying, ”said Dr Harbaksh Sangha, Chief Medical Officer of Lake Regional. “So as a human being it’s very frustrating, but as a doctor we just take care of whatever we get. “
Only 47.5% of Missourians have started immunization, almost 10 percentage points less than the country as a whole. Around Osage Beach, a town of about 5,000 that straddles two counties, state data shows that only 38.6% of residents in Camden County and 26.7% in Miller County have started the process.
Coronavirus Update: CDC releases data that informed face mask review, says delta variant of COVID means ‘war has changed’
Also see: “It feels like being hit by a train”: Florida coronavirus cases jumped 50% this week
Barker, of Branson, about 120 miles southwest of Osage Beach, understands the hesitation.
“I was firmly against the vaccine,” Barker said through a labored breath. “Just because we’re a strong conservative family. “
In the United States, many people who identify as politically and socially conservative have been more reluctant to get vaccinated – so much so that in Missouri, religious leaders have joined efforts to encourage vaccines. Meanwhile, the summer outbreak is so alarming that the Democratic-led city and county of St. Louis and Kansas City have reinstated mask warrants.
The virus recently passed through Barker’s extended family. Not only did he and his wife, Billie, get it, but eight other parents as well.
Barker fell so ill his wife took him to Branson’s emergency room. He was sent home with oxygen, but got worse.
With Branson Hospital reaching its peak of COVID-19 patients, doctors have contacted a dozen hospitals across the state. All were at full capacity. Lake Regional was also almost full, but Dr Joe Sohal, pulmonologist and intensive care specialist, found a bed for Barker.
He arrived seriously ill. Placed on a ventilator, Barker had a 20% chance of survival.
“The doctor told me he was going to let my wife and child in so I could say my goodbyes because he didn’t think I was going to be okay,” Barker said. During these conversations he told his wife and 6 year old son Brody that he loved them “and that I was not going to give up.”
Slowly, Barker began to recover. Sohal is optimistic but said Barker, who was hospitalized for three weeks, has not come out of the woods.
“This is the time when he gets a lot better or a lot worse,” Sohal said.
The Lake of the Ozarks region attracts nearly 5.5 million annual visitors and made national news at the start of the pandemic, when large crowds were spotted ignoring social distancing while partying in bars and restaurants. swimming pools.
This state of mind remains at Osage Beach. Few people – locals or visitors – wear masks, even in crowded places.
If tourists get sick, they take it home. Sohal said most of the COVID-19 patients in Lake Regional are locals or people like Barker transferred from other hospitals.
Statewide, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have more than doubled since early June and the number of intensive care patients has more than tripled. As of June 7, Lake Regional has admitted 125 patients with the virus. As of Tuesday, there were 21 COVID-19 patients, including eight in intensive care and four on ventilators. Sohal himself has signed around half a dozen death certificates over the past week.
Sohal said many patients are now younger – in their 20s, 30s or 40s – and sicker, often with gastrointestinal upset in addition to respiratory issues.
The hospital staff are exhausted. Among those feeling the pressure is intensive care nurse Chris Murphy, who spends much of his day running from room to room.
“It’s devastating for individuals and families,” Murphy, a former combat medic, said of the virus. “And you should take precautions.”
Sohal said almost everyone in hospital is not vaccinated. Patients said they were worried about the side effects of the vaccines or thought the vaccines had been rushed and taken quickly.
Daryl and Billie Barker both plan to get the vaccine once he recovers.
Daryl said his wife and son are the reason he fights so hard.
On a sweltering day, they sat outside the intensive care unit on lawn chairs, looking at Daryl through a window. Every now and then Brody would walk to the window and wave to his father, who was smiling and giving him his hand. Billie used a dry erase marker to scribble “I love you” upside down on the glass so her husband could read it.
“I don’t ever want to have to do this again,” she said, “and if that means getting the shot to avoid something like that, that’s what I will do.”
Read on: No deaths, few hospitalizations, but 74% of people who tested positive in the Massachusetts outbreak have been vaccinated, CDC says
[ad_2]
Source link