Florida Coronavirus: “This pandemic is our World War II.” How a St. Petersburg hospital fights to save intensive care patients

Surrounded by medical equipment and staff working to keep her alive, she is breathless as doctors and nurses prepare for a procedure that has become all too common in the past 18 months: intubation.

The procedure involves using a thin surgical probe known as a stylet to guide a tube down a woman’s throat, according to Dr. Hudman Hoo, pulmonologist and medical director of the intensive care unit at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Saint -Petersburg, Florida.

The procedure must be precise, but time is running out.

A few minutes after intubation, there are signs of progress: the woman’s heart rate and vital signs are improving.

For the patient, who is 75 years old, there is a chance of survival.

Yet thousands more across the country are also hospitalized, and the prognosis for many is also in question as they grapple with the debilitating effects of Covid-19.

“We have seen an overwhelming number of Covid patients,” Hoo told CNN. “This is one of the worst waves I’ve seen. Things are going as badly with Covid as they’ve ever been in Florida.”

Dr Warren Abel, an intensive care doctor at St. Anthony’s, said the majority of Covid-19 patients are under 65, with some as young as 20. “This pandemic is our World War II,” he told CNN.

‘Spend a day with me. You will see that we do not agree. ‘

Scott Smith, the president of St. Anthony’s, told CNN that not only has the hospital seen a record number of hospitalizations for Covid-19, but the entire BayCare health system has felt the latest surge. Hospitalizations have increased tenfold since early July.

Of the facility’s 28 intensive care beds, 27 are for Covid-19 patients, he said, and around 85% of his Covid-19 patients are unvaccinated.

For the woman who had to be intubated, the hospital says she received her first dose of vaccine but was infected with Covid-19 before she had a chance to receive the second, which would have been a necessary step to obtain full protection against the virus.

Hoo said confusion over how the vaccine works has been relayed by some patients.

“We have had patients who come and ask us, ‘Can I get the vaccine now? “But they don’t understand that this is something that is supposed to be preventative,” Hoo said.

“It’s the unvaccinated patients who mostly end up on a ventilator and actually die from this process,” Abel said. “Almost always before being intubated, they want to call their loved ones to tell them that they love them and say goodbye. And unfortunately, this is often the last time they will speak to them.

“Every person who dies without being vaccinated is preventable death. It’s very, it’s, it’s heartbreaking,” he said.

Sue Rivera, the nurse manager of the intensive care unit at St. Anthony, challenged the thinking of those who think vaccines are not necessary.

“Spend a day with me. You will see that we don’t agree. I walk down the hall and almost all of our patients are on their stomachs to help them breathe. And my nurses are tired, we are doing our best can Said Rivera.

She shared that the latest wave has changed her mind about vaccinations.

“I’m going to be very transparent. I thought I could squeal about this pandemic without getting vaccinated,” she said. “And when the Delta variant hit and I saw patients coming into my intensive care unit, younger and younger, my younger age, it really only got me vaccinated because I didn’t. I’m not ready to say goodbye to my kids. I’m not ready for them to say goodbye to me. “

Her children, aged 18 and 20, are now vaccinated, she said.