Oxygen supplies become precarious amid COVID outbreak

MISSION, Kansas – The COVID-19 surge expands oxygen supplies and sends hospitals scrambling for more ventilators, even though there are signs of hope the spread of the virus is slowing in pockets across the states. United

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a hospital recently called 911 after just hours of running out of oxygen because it needed an emergency transfer for a patient on high flow oxygen. The hospital received a delivery later that day, but the experience was a warning to other hospitals, said Dr Jeffrey Goodloe, chief medical officer of the emergency medical services system that serves Tulsa and Oklahoma City. .

“If it can happen at a hospital, it can happen at any hospital,” Goodloe said. “There is no ‘it’s happening over there’. It is here in the blink of an eye.”

Oxygen shortages are another sign of the toll that the summer resurgence of COVID-19 has placed on the country’s hospital system. A handful of states, including Florida, Oregon, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Louisiana, have set pandemic records for the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, and many hospitals are dangerously understaffed and understaffed. intensive care unit beds.

There is good news, however.

The country registers an average of 155,000 new infections per day, but the trajectory of the number of cases has slowed considerably since the beginning of August.

Florida, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi have seen a slight drop in cases over the past two weeks. Florida has seen a drop in COVID-19 admissions in recent days, as have hospitals in Springfield, Missouri, one of the early epicenters of the delta variant push.

The number of vaccinations is also on the rise, and White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients has credited the vaccination mandates that have been implemented across the country, including restaurants, workplaces, sports stadiums and schools.

“It is important to note that we have increased the pace of the first shots. In August, we received over 14 million. This is almost 4 million more first shots in August compared to the previous month in July.” , Zients said Tuesday.

But the numbers haven’t moved much in a week since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave Pfizer full approval for its vaccine after reviewing six months of safety data. The seven-day average vaccine doses administered in the United States rose to 898,000 on Monday, from 853,000 a week earlier.

Deaths are also on the rise, averaging more than 1,300 a day, which health officials have predicted due to the massive increase in cases and hospitalizations over the past month.

Georgia and Oklahoma have become new places where hospital and state leaders are sounding the alarm bells about lack of capacity and supplies.

COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are set to exceed January peaks in Georgia as hospitals feared Monday that the delta variant of the respiratory disease threatens to suck some Georgian hospitals dry of medical oxygen, a key treatment for people who have difficulty breathing.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order calling on up to 1,500 more National Guard soldiers to help under-staffed hospitals with non-medical jobs, in addition to the 1,000 previously authorized.

Augusta University Medical Center has ordered 12 additional ventilators to deal with the surge. The hospital was treating 122 COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, bringing its overall hospital count to a record 501 patients.

COVID-19 patient numbers remain around 20 below peak winter levels, but hospital has refused transfers because it is also working with a backlog of patients who have postponed care during the height of the pandemic said Dr Phillip Coule. , chief doctor.

“We are monitoring the use of our ventilator very closely,” he said, noting that more of his patients need high flow oxygen and other treatments which sometimes lead them to be. put on a ventilator. “We are concerned about this.”

With the supply of oxygen, part of the problem is that hospitals have successfully treated coronavirus patients with high-flow oxygen tubes. But the method uses up to three times more oxygen than treatment methods used earlier in the pandemic, said Andy Brailo, director of clientele for Premier, a group buyer of hospital supplies.

Add to that the challenges of finding enough conductors with the required hazardous materials certifications to deliver oxygen to hard-hit hospitals, and supplies are tighter than ever. Some hospitals have arrived a day or two after they were exhausted. Others have resorted to backup tanks which are normally only used when their main tank is full.

In Orlando, residents have been told to stop watering their lawns and washing their cars due to lack of oxygen. This is because Orlando treats the city’s water with liquid oxygen, and supplies that are typically used for water treatment have been diverted to hospitals.

Brailo said the oxygen problem was particularly acute in Florida. He said he had recently heard of problems in Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas.

“The hospitals started to think if we got out, what are the options we should take?” Brailo said. “In some cases that may mean having to move patients. And it may mean resorting to much more invasive means to ensure that these patients are oxygenated.”

Dr Ryan Stanton, an emergency room doctor in Lexington, Ky. Who has treated dozens of COVID-19 patients, said doctors have started discussing the possibility of placing multiple people on a single ventilator in recent days in private Facebook groups. He said that so far no doctor has said he is trying.

“It’s just a sign that you are reaching this critical breaking point,” he said of the discussion.

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