"You have a heart attack, you have a stroke, you are in a car accident, you need to come into the hospital, guess what? You can hang out in the ER until we can get a place for you.”
That’s the situation at the Terrebonne General Health System right now, according to Dr. Ben Adams. Adams spoke with WWL-TV about the strain the current COVID surge is placing on the medical infrastructure in Louisiana, where the Delta variant is raging through the state.
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“How do we do get a place for you?” Adams continued. “Either we have people who get better and get discharged from the hospital or either have people who get worse, and they die. That's how the beds open up right now and that's a sad state to be in.”
As of Monday, 20 of Terrebonne’s 28 beds were occupied by COVID patients. The simple math shows that that leaves just eight to handle every other type of emergency, and those are filled, too.
“It’s different than the first time,” said Phyllis Peoples at Terrebonne General, talking to WWL-TV about the latest COVID surge. “We are getting nervous and scared.”
And the strain is exacerbated by staff members dealing with their own COVID challenges: 40 employees are currently out of commission due to the coronavirus.
"We haven't seen anything like this before. No one has,” Peoples said.
Likewise, Ochsner’s bayou facilities are currently treating 112 COVID patients, with unvaccinated patients making up 90% of the critical care cases in Lafourche Parish.
Parish President Archie Chaisson told WWL-TV that they will continue to create additional vaccination sites as they struggle to get ahead of the surge.
"We are trying to bring more of that to the area. Still pushing the vaccine as hard as we can, encouraging people to talk to their doctor, talk to their family and if it's right for them then go ahead and get it," Chaisson said.
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