Hazard, Kentucky, the man says he paid no attention to Covid-19. Now he has it and he wants you to know it’s no joke

Couch said people need to take steps to protect themselves, such as social distancing, staying home and washing their hands so they don’t catch the virus, which has infected more than 600,000 people in Kentucky and which reappears.

Couch admits he paid no attention to the virus before he fell ill. He doesn’t know how he got infected and he stayed home for eight days before going to the hospital.

Now that he’s been seriously ill for over 20 days, he plans to get the vaccine and says he’s telling his friends and family to do it. Some of his relatives have received their first dose and are waiting for a second, he said.

While the virus was tough on him, Couch said he never needed a ventilator.

Lack of fans and staff

But many patients delay getting to the hospital for so long that by the time they get to the ARH, they have no choice.

The hospital, however, does not have enough ventilators, respiratory therapy director Rikki Cornett said.

“We are running out of fans,” she said. “We are running out of supplies. I borrow supplies from our partner hospitals almost every day.”

And the staff is also short.

The hospital system needs 170 nurses to open additional beds. Nurses are working longer hours and doubling the number of patients just to keep pace.

“A respiratory therapist should comfortably have four patients on a ventilator. Right now I have seven to eight patients per respiratory therapist,” said Cornett.

Work has never been so difficult for doctors and nurses. Cornett said she catches nurses crying and has to shed tears when she gets home from a shift.

There are no intensive care beds available at the 13 ARH facilities, Chief Medical Officer Dr Maria Braman said. And 35 patients are kept in emergency departments until an intensive care room opens.

It’s such a shame that the entire hospital system only opened three non-ICU beds.

“It has been very, very difficult. I am moved because this is our community,” said Wanda Combs, who has been a nurse for about 30 years and manages the nursing staff of the Covid intensive care unit and the cardiovascular unit.

“Critical care nurses work very hard. They work very hard every day but you can usually see a difference… With that, they work just as hard, if not more, and it hurts when you don’t see a difference,” she declared. , while his eyes were cloudy.

Some families have to deal with the fact that their loved one is going to die, Combs said. “It’s hard for them to realize, ‘Oh, you mean this is the end. Is this really the end?'”

More than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, the virus made a strong comeback in Kentucky. And patients are sicker and more difficult to treat, staff said.

And there is another major difference.

“We are seeing patients much younger than before,” said Jason Higgs, RN in the Covid-19 unit. “I have patients who are now 20 to 75 years old. It attacks everyone. It is not limited to an age group.”

“It destroys us,” said nurse Carolyn Eddington. “I mean, everyone gets it. Everyone gets sick.”

She paused to gather her emotions. “We’re just seeing a lot right now.”