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The 66-year-old great-grandmother from Olive Hill, Ky. Said she and her husband discussed the vaccine, but continued to postpone it and ultimately decided not to. She couldn’t explain why.
Middleton spoke to CNN on Wednesday as she was receiving a high flow of oxygen, saying she believed she caught Covid-19 from her granddaughter who had fallen ill. The virus then spread to everyone in their home.
Middleton is better now and is now encouraging her family – as well as others – to get the vaccine. She cried as she spoke to CNN on Wednesday, explaining that she believed she would die if she had to be put on a ventilator. Through tears, she also thanked the medical staff profusely and explained how much her church had supported her church during her time of need.
“With the grace of God, he was the one who brought me here. God brought me to where I am right now, and I praise him,” she said from her hospital bed in tears, adding that she hopes the message people will get from her story is not to get the vaccine, but to know “that there is a God, and without him I wouldn’t be here today” .
Feelings like Middleton’s are common in the Appalachians – an area stretching from southern New York to northern Alabama and Georgia – where many people do not believe or hesitate to get vaccinated, according to reports. medical professionals who spoke to CNN.
As a result of this hesitation, Covid-19 has spread to Kentucky, where nearly all of the state’s 120 counties are in the Covid-19 ‘red’ zone and hospitals on the verge of being overwhelmed, according to Governor Andy Beshear.
A hospital exceeds its capacity by 130%
One of those hospitals, the St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, about 65 miles east of Lexington, is one of the hardest hit due to the influx of Covid-19 patients. It is the largest healthcare facility serving 11 counties in rural Northeast Kentucky and is currently 130% above capacity, according to St. Claire Health Care CEO Donald Lloyd.
“I think it’s a wave of fear now and these people are afraid of a vaccine that could save their life – and that’s why they are now in the hospital,” said Dr William Melah, doctor. -Head of St. Claire Santé Hospital.
About 85% to 88% of patients are unvaccinated, Melah said.
“It’s like we’re at war with this virus,” said Courtney Hollingsworth, nurse at the Covid-19 ICU in St. Claire. “We’re not at war with each other if, you know, your beliefs and things, it’s really a war with this virus.”
The hospital had to close three operating rooms to expand intensive care bed space, Beshear said.
As a result, it’s become a problem for regular patients who want to come in for emergency care, Melah said. Some have to wait up to 24 hours for treatment or until someone gets better or dies, he said.
The governor said he had deployed a strike team of nurses to St. Clair along with around 20 National Guard members to help with the influx of patients, but staff say that may not be enough.
“We could take double the number of clinicians who are here,” Lloyd said.
The push is also overwhelming for hospital staff.
“It is futile to put another person on a ventilator,” said Joelle Craft, a Covid-19 intensive care nurse. “It is pointless to put another person in a lying position or paralyze them or watch them take more test tubes. It is pointless to watch health care providers I care about or to stay on my own bedside of someone dying alone It’s also pointless to watch someone else get put in a body bag, ”she said.
Dr Cory Yoder, a family doctor in St. Claire, said she had to get a few nurses out of the hallway and into a room alone because they were breaking down in tears over their patients.
“They just feel like there’s no hope and it’s not our critical care nurses,” Yoder told CNN.
State of emergency extended until January 2022
Following the spike, Kentucky lawmakers voted on Tuesday to extend the state of emergency, which was due to expire on Friday, until January 15, 2022.
The increase in the number of cases illustrates that large urban hospitals are not the only ones being bombarded with patients, Beshear said. “It’s the regional hospitals that don’t usually treat the incredibly sick patients that are filled with these sick patients,” he said.
When asked if doctors and hospitals are getting to the point of rationing care, the governor said the state is still able to move patients from one hospital to another.
“But we’re just at this point or we’re getting close to it quickly,” he said.
CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian, Kristina Sgueglia, Liam Reilly, Mirna Alsharif, and Kiely Westhoff contributed to this report.
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