A recent story in the Los Angeles Times detailed the death earlier this month of a Joshua Tree resident who died because of the coronavirus surge. Kim Folsom did not have COVID-19, but Hi-Desert Medical Center and other hospitals in the Southland were filled to capacity and had no room to admit her. Folsom, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three years ago, woke up in a pool of blood December 7. Her husband Billy took her to Hi-Desert Medical Center, but the hospital could not care for her, and her doctor was unable to find any hospital that had room to admit her. Nearly 12 hours after arriving at the emergency room, Kim Folsom died.
“I’m scared.”
They were the last words that Billy, a retired mechanic for the city of Costa Mesa who was in the parking lot of the small hospital, ever expected his wife to say.
Kim called Billy just as he had returned from their home with some of her clothes. She was a former nurse with a radiant smile and matronly toughness that could calm down angry drunks at the biker bars she and Billy loved to visit. A three-year bout with pancreatic cancer hadn’t diminished her spirit or resolve.
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Billy and Kim Folsom bought a house in Joshua Tree, Calif., three years ago, around the time she received her cancer diagnosis, so they could fight it together in an area they loved.
Hi-Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree vaccinated its first staff and physicians against COVID-19 Thursday morning. The hospital received 150 vaccines to begin the inoculations. The medical center’s CEO Karen Faulis said getting the vaccine means the medical staff can take better care of their patients by having the staff immune to the disease. Brian Kim, a certified registered nurse anesthetist who intubates patients and manages their airways, said getting the vaccine means he can worry a little bit less about getting COVID and passing it on to his family.
Dr. Neeru Agarwal of Hi-Desert Medical Center receives the COVID Vaccine.