» Walk Down Our Unit for a Day : Nurses Fear What s to Come as Covid-19 Cases Surge in US
3-MIN READ Walk Down Our Unit for a Day : Nurses Fear What s to Come as Covid-19 Cases Surge in US
A man in a mask walks past a mural of frontline workers in Mumbai. (Reuters)
A charge nurse at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles San Fernando Valley, Carrillo is haunted by the daily counts of COVID-19 patients. Dark shadows circle her eyes.
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The nurses of California are afraid. Its Christmas Eve, and they arent home with their families. They are working, always working, completely gowned up and worn down.
Hard-hit California has eclipsed 2 million coronavirus cases as the U.S. heads into a Christmas travel surge that could fuel the deadly crisis across the nation.
Registered nurse Virginia Petersen works on a computer while assisting a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles, Nov. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
(CN) A record-breaking spike of Covid-19 cases has pushed California to over 2 million confirmed infections ahead of the Christmas holiday and left fewer than 1% of the state’s ICU beds available for new patients.
And with 32,000 new cases reported Wednesday, hospitals will continue to be inundated with new patients into the new year at alarming rates.
Over 3,800 Californians with Covid-19 lay in ICU beds across the state, nearly double the number just three weeks ago. That will continue to rise as the explosion of new Covid-19 positive cases plows into the record books every day.
Nurses fear what s to come in COVID crisis: Walk down our unit for a day
Updated on: December 24, 2020 / 7:27 PM / AP California surpasses 2 million COVID-19 cases
Los Angeles The nurses of California are afraid. It s Christmas Eve, and they aren t home with their families. They are working, always working, completely gowned up and worn down.
They re frightened by what people are doing, or not doing, during a coronavirus pandemic that has already killed more than 320,000 nationwide and shows no signs of slowing down.
They re even more terrified of what s next. Every day, I look into the eyes of someone who is struggling to breathe, said nurse Jenny Carrillo, her voice breaking.
Jae C. Hong/AP
toggle caption Jae C. Hong/AP
Hospital workers move a patient into the prone (face down) position, which can help increase the lung capacity of some COVID-19 patients. The medical team was photographed Nov. 19 at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. Jae C. Hong/AP
The massive surge in coronavirus cases has left hospitals in Los Angeles County scrambling to handle the increasing numbers of patients showing up at their doors. Nowhere is that more evident than in hospitals intensive care units, which are rapidly filling up with the worst COVID-19 cases. We have no ICU beds, says Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer of LAC+USC Medical Center, one of the area s largest hospitals. We are just continually, 24 hours a day, scrambling to move patients around. The flood just continues.