Doctor says people beg for COVID vaccine before being intubated

An Alabama doctor described in a Facebook post on Sunday how she should inform unvaccinated COVID-19 patients who request the vaccine that it was too late for injections before intubating.

Dr Brytney Cobia, who works at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, wrote: “I am admitting healthy young people with very serious COVID infections to hospital. One of the last things they do before they are intubated is begging me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them I’m sorry, but it’s too late.

Dr Cobia spoke to AL.com in an interview published on Monday. In it, she said that of all her patients treated for COVID-19-related illnesses, only one person had been vaccinated. This patient needed oxygen but is expected to make a full recovery, she said.

However, some of the unvaccinated die, which is why she took to Facebook to share her story and encourage anyone hesitant to get vaccinated.

Cobia told AL.com that before the vaccine was available, “it was just tragedy after tragedy after tragedy” for doctors treating critically ill COVID-19 patients. She described to the media in more detail the moment before intubation – a procedure of putting a tube down someone’s throat when they can’t breathe on their own – and how desperately patients want it. vaccine.

She said that although she may have first tried to feel that unvaccinated patients have made their own choice, she feels bad for them when they are “face to face”. She also noted how misinformation about COVID and vaccines causes people to not always make the best decisions for themselves.

Alabama state officials recently reported that 94% of COVID patients hospitalized since April had not been fully immunized. Ninety-six percent of Alabamians who have died from COVID since April were unvaccinated. AL.com reported that more than 11,400 people in the state have died from COVID.

In her Facebook post, Cobia also detailed the experience of notifying family members after someone’s death. She wrote: “A few days later when I call the time of death, I hug their family members and tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get it done. vaccinate and encourage everyone they know to do the same. They cry. And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. “

She also listed some of the misinformed apologies she received from people who avoided the shots. Some people thought certain blood types or skin colors wouldn’t get sick, while others thought the virus was no worse than regular flu, she wrote.

“But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t,” Cobia continued. “So they thank me and they are going to get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their obituary and say a little prayer that this loss will save more lives.”