‘COVID is here’: Louisiana mother pleads with community as her 20-year-old daughter is put on a ventilator | Coronavirus

Josepha Morgan doesn’t want another parent to go through what she is going through as her 20-year-old daughter fights for her life in a hospital overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.

Mum Broussard, who recently recovered from the virus, learned Tuesday evening that her daughter could not breathe and was on her way by ambulance to a hospital in Baton Rouge. Kayla Scott had sought hospital treatment for her coronavirus symptoms two days earlier when her mother noticed how breathless Scott looked on a phone call. Scott was treated on Sunday with steroids, intravenous fluids and antibiotics, but was sent home after a chest x-ray revealed only a patch of pneumonia, Morgan said.

A chest x-ray on Tuesday night revealed the pneumonia had spread to the entire lung.

“She didn’t respond when she arrived,” Morgan said Wednesday. “She was very inconsistent.”

Morgan learned her daughter was on 100% oxygen on a non-invasive ventilator known as BiPap in the Baton Rouge General emergency department because there were no intensive care beds available. Her medical team wanted to intubate her on a mechanical ventilator, but they couldn’t do so until a new intensive care wing was built in the overcrowded hospital, Morgan said.

It took about 16 hours for Scott to be transferred from the emergency department to an intensive care room.

“My kids have never been to the hospital without me,” Morgan said. “When my kids are sick or need to go to the emergency room, they are big babies and I’m a mom bear. I’m very involved in their care.”

Scott had been hospitalized twice in her life before this week, her mother said. Scott weighed just 1 pound, 11 ounces at birth and was on a ventilator for the first two months of his life. She was then hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, as a child.

Now Morgan has to rely on occasional updates from hospital staff who are overwhelmed with more patients.

“I don’t know what’s going on. It’s the hardest part for me,” Morgan said. “I wouldn’t dare call them and harass them because I know they are being criticized. I don’t want to stop them from doing what they are doing.”

Scott lives in Baton Rouge with his uncle. She works at Flowers Bakery and looks after her 6 year old cousin during his distance learning days away from school while her uncle works. She is in a serious romantic relationship and has grown up and gained independence, her mother said. Morgan said she usually speaks to her daughter on the phone several times a day.

“Kayla is very carefree and heartbreaking,” Morgan said. “I see myself in her. I can see a lot of the qualities that I have in her.”

Scott is the oldest of Morgan’s children. Morgan has 17 and 13 year old sons who live in his house and a 19 year old son who has moved away. She also lost two daughters years ago after their premature births.

“Are all my daughters going to be taken?” Morgan said, her voice broken. “Am I not going to see my daughter get married or give birth? That’s where I’m thinking, just going on those tangents.”

Morgan and Scott each fell ill with COVID-19 separately in July, and Morgan believes she contracted the virus from her 17-year-old son, who at the time worked for a restaurant where she says employees were requested not to wear masks and were not informed when staff members fell ill with the virus. Morgan and her husband also fell ill, but her 13-year-old son never exhibited any symptoms and tested negative for COVID-19.

Scott and his uncle, who had not been in the same neighborhood as the rest of the family, fell ill and tested positive for COVID-19 soon after. The 6-year-old in the house was quickly moved to another household and remained free of symptoms of the virus, Morgan said.

“I just want people to know COVID is here,” Morgan said. “It’s upon us. It doesn’t matter what you think, what you believe, what you feel, what you heard. It’s here. The only thing that’s going to protect you, or increase your chances of it. fight, is to get vaccinated, social distancing, wear a mask and protect yourself. “

Neither Morgan nor her daughter are vaccinated, although they have taken other precautions to avoid getting sick. Morgan said she made a vaccination appointment at a grocery store pharmacy in late June, but was turned away because she did not have an insurance prescription card.

“It was a little frustrating,” Morgan said. “It took me months to decide to do it, and then we were turned away.”

As the delta variant quickly spread in early July, Morgan decided to make an appointment at another pharmacy to get his family vaccinated. Her 17-year-old daughter tested positive for the virus on the day of the appointment.

Scott became concerned about her family’s health when she learned they had tested positive for COVID-19 and said she wanted to get the shot but had to find a time that didn’t fit in conflict with his work schedule. Scott fell ill before she could get the vaccine.

“Last year I remember people saying it wasn’t happening here,” Morgan said. “They said it was out of the country or out of the state or even in another part of the state. People don’t think it’s here. There is a lag.”

Morgan said she knew firsthand what was going on in Acadiana after seeking medical treatment for COVID-19 herself last month. She went to an emergency care facility, where she was referred for a monoclonal antibody infusion. Although the infusions were most effective within 24 to 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, demand was so high in mid-July that Morgan was unable to get an appointment for the infusion until five days later, said she declared.

Morgan ran out of breath on July 19, three days after the emergency care visit and two days before her scheduled antibody infusion. She then sought emergency care at the Notre-Dame de Lourdes Regional Medical Center that evening, where she waited about three hours, received the antibody infusion and was released later that night.

Those hours in the hospital have been a wake-up call for Morgan about the severity of the COVID-19 situation as the delta variant spreads uncontrollably and young people experience worse results. Hospital workers were even overwhelmed at the time, before cases hit record levels this week.

“Patients were coming in with COVID, unable to breathe,” Morgan said. “And they’d say, ‘We’re increasing this one. We are increasing this one. ‘ And, at one point, the ER doctor had some sort of fit. Apparently people were calling to see if they had beds, and they were told no. And people always showed up to the emergency room, and the doctor lost him for a while. secondly. He said to me, “Why the hell would you want to let three hospitals pass just to come here? We told them to go to the heart hospital because they have room there, and they decide to come anyway. . ” He was p —- d. “

Now that hospitals are even more overwhelmed, Morgan is waiting for updates on her daughter. She is also devoting her energy to educating her friends, family and community about the reality of what is happening as COVID-19 hospitalizations reach an all time high. Morgan said several people have decided to get the shot in recent weeks because of his advocacy.

Morgan is also reminding people to take extra precautions to avoid needing emergency care in overwhelmed facilities.

“One of the things that has changed a lot for us is that we are now a lot more careful at home,” Morgan said. “My son helps me cook. He wanted to julienne carrots, and I said, ‘No, we’re not going to have an accident.’ We do safer things around the house to avoid sores. We don’t want to have an emergency trip to the hospital because you’re going to be waiting while the more acute patients are seen. “