I have permission from my cousin, Shari, to share her recent experience. She has experience with hospitals as both an employee and a patient. It’s worth reading to the end. Like Shari, I’m worried about my adult son who has to have abdominal CTs and just got through a bout of severe diverticulitis last week, plus I’m concerned about my pregnant daughter due next month in a hospital very busy trying to save COVID patients, right now. Hospitals are trying to serve people, even those who are not protecting others even when it’s possible. Here is Shari’s view:
“Sorry this is LONG. I just wanted to share my experience yesterday afternoon. It was extremely eye opening. As many of you know I had a pretty scary hospital stay last October. Well, a few days ago I started having the EXACT same symptoms that dang near killed me. Initially, I didn’t go to the hospital for a couple of reasons. 1. The staff are absolutely overwhelmed. 2. There are sicker patients than me, so I didn’t want to take away from them. 3. I just didn’t want to take “time”. James finally took me to the ER yesterday.
Once there it was like a war zone. I have never in my life experienced such sickness. It’s really only the stuff you see on TV not in real life. As you go in you are asked a million questions, given a hospital grade mask, and triaged. Lots of COVID questions and if you’ve been vaccinated. This was 3 pm in the afternoon on a Wednesday. James and I were secluded with the other folks who were not there for COVID. The positive and potential COVID patients were taken to another area. This is what I witnessed: Patient comes in with 2 teenage children. She is almost completely out of it. Head back, eyes closed, shallow breathing, and coughing uncontrollable. Her kids were TERRIFIED. They told the check in gal their Mom was positive for COVID and not vaccinated. They whisked her to the COVID area. Another patient (older) comes in with his brother. Again, positive for COVID and has never had a vaccine in his life. He probably isn’t going to make it. We over heard his brother talking to someone on the phone and they were making “final arrangements”. Patient #3 comes in slumped over in a wheelchair. Positive for COVID and not vaccinated. Patient #4 leaving the ER is waiting for her ride, positive for COVID (unknown vaccination status). This same patient scenario happened close to 10 times in the 2 hours I was waiting to be seen. I was triaged as “wait” because there were so many COVID patients coming in. Yet, if I had the same thing as last October I could easily rupture internally and die within minutes.
Other things I saw: One patient came out from the back of the ER screaming at staff for not being fast enough. He screamed “I’m never coming back to this f***king place!” I thought well with that attitude they are probably happy about that! The check in gal, who was older, got reamed more times than I can count. At one point when she was sitting at the desk, she had tears streaming down her face. She kept saying to herself “there are just so many sick people, when will this stop!” She cried about the 2 teenage kids who had no one but their Mom. No one to come pick them up. They had no idea if their Mom was going to live or die. At one point there was a patient in the waiting room that came from another hospital. Very irate. A doctor actually came out and talked to them. He was so sympathetic, yet the people were awful to him. They can only do so much when there is so many sick people!
When I finally got a room, I asked the doc “please just give me a quick CT and if there are no abscesses I will get out of the way” I had 2 docs and they were the best ER docs I’ve ever had. They were so kind. You could see how tired they both are. The male doc was a bit irritated that I didn’t come in the minute the symptoms started. He said “you know this could be really bad for you!” I told him I knew, but didn’t want to take away from the COVID and super sick patients. He said if he had a dollar for every time, he’s heard this recently. He said “don’t you EVER feel guilty about coming to see us!” The nurses were top notch. But you could see they were tired, overwhelmed, and sad. I thanked each of them for their selflessness.
This just isn’t at the hospital it’s EVERYWHERE. I have family members who are in the hospital or sick with COVID. I have friends who have COVID and are in the hospital. I have one friend who’s been on a ventilator for 2 weeks. He’s in his 40’s. I had another beautiful friend who had COVID and everyone thought she wasn’t going to make it. On a ventilator not doing good at all. Thank God, she pulled through. I have seen friends lose their family members to COVID.
This post is not a debate. I am simply sharing my thoughts and feelings. When will it stop? When will people take this seriously? I understand some people can’t get vaccinated for health reasons. I get it. But, at what point do people realize there is enough sickness and death that might be prevented by getting a vaccine? I know people are passionate about “not being told what to do” “I’m not being mandated to have a shot!” It’s your choice, but why should those who choose not to get vaccinated go around and infect many more? I couldn't work for 2 weeks because someone not vaccinated chose to go to work KNOWING he was positive. For the love of God, if you are able to get the vaccine, please consider doing it.
If you not vaccinated, I still love you and pray you don’t get sick.”
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