reporter: vera middleton was so sick doctors considered putting her on a ventilator. she refused opting instead to pray. i praise him from now. reporter: she is getting everything but the ventilator and improving. the 66-year-old great grandmother from a small town, she says she and her husband talked about getting vaccinated but decided against it. do you have any idea where you got covid? yes. my granddaughter had gotten sick and just went through everybody. reporter: kentucky seeing its biggest covid-19 surge yet. cases and hospitalizations spiking sharply to levels never seen before. deaths, too, on the rise. hospitals everywhere just trying to keep up. it s defeating to put another person on the ventilator.
rhetoric, vis-a-vis mask mandates and vaccination, is getting so out of control it s dividing us even further. mary trump, i appreciate your time. thank you. thank you. coming up next. an up-close look at the covid surge in kentucky. we will take you inside a hospital at 130% above capacity. that s the national guard now to help. psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen, painful. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options.
it s defeating to watch a health care provider that i care about or myself stand at the bedside when someone dies alone. it s also defeating to watch someone else get put in a body bag. reporter: the biggest facility providing health care to 11 counties in rural north eastern kentucky. it can t expand capacity fast enough. it s like we re at a war with this virus. and i think what we have to understand is we re not at a war with each other. whether your beliefs and those things, it s truly a war with this virus. reporter: the national guard is helping here. a federal disaster medical assistance team is also on hand, and still they need more. we right now based upon our number of staff beds we re running about 130% above capacity. 130% above capacity. and that s icu beds, regular covid units, regular patients, emergency department, everything across the board? that s correct. reporter: the hospital has created yet another covid icu
. . . keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. earlier sanjay said hospitals are becoming overwhelmed due to covid surge, and that s definitely the case in parts of kentucky. the deep red and dark oranges on this map show you counties with high numbers of covid cases in the state. the reason less than half of kentucky s population is fully vaccinated according to the cdc, and many counties you see the light shade of teal only 30% to 38% of population partially vaccinated. cnn s miguel marquez takes us to one hospital in the state where the national guard is helping out as more and more covid patients seek help.