NPR: Americans get sicker as omicron stalls everything from heart surgeries to cancer care
After every shift in his Seattle emergency department, Dr. Matt Beecroft comes away with some new story of how the omicron surge is making his patients sicker.
And not just from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Instead, it's the delays and disruptions in medical care ? a consequence of overcrowded and short-staffed hospitals ? that are leading to, at times, life-threatening complications.
"It can be just heartbreaking," says Beecroft, who recalls one recent patient of his who had a heart attack. "She had been scheduled for a cardiac bypass," a procedure done to improve blood flow when there's an obstructed or partially blocked artery, "but that surgery had been canceled."
Beecroft, who's affiliated with the American College of Emergency Physicians, told two other doctors about the patient. That's when it became clear to him that this was far from an isolated event: "Between the three of us, we had seen four patients who had cardiac complications from not being able to get a cardiac surgery."
There's no way to quantify how many Americans are now suffering serious, if not irreversible, harm to their health because hospitals are buckling under the weight of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. But doctors say the consequences are far-reaching, given how many procedures have been postponed.
Omicron cases are now falling in the U.S. overall, but the pressure on hospitals will not evaporate so quickly, doctors say. Hospitalizations generally trail infections by a week or two, and critically ill patients can require lengthy hospital stays.
And while some hospitals have restarted elective surgeries, others are still too overwhelmed to do so.
"Most facilities have lists of hundreds of people who have had procedures or non-urgent care delayed," says Dr. Tammy Lundstrom, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Trinity Health, which has hospitals in 25 states.
Like so many doctors, Matt Beecroft sees patients stuck in a painful limbo ? unsure of when they'll be able to get care. One in particular stands out to him. He'd come into the emergency department for recurrent, worsening headaches related to a tumor that needed to be cut out but wasn't yet, because the hospital where the surgery was scheduled was too full.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...lls-everything-from-heart-surgeries-to-cancer
My comment: Like I previously said due to covid hospitals are to full and had to cancel surgeries.
In my opinion and not the article, the health care system is turning like in third world countries. We hear and read in the news that the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations are due to non vaccinated people.
After every shift in his Seattle emergency department, Dr. Matt Beecroft comes away with some new story of how the omicron surge is making his patients sicker.
And not just from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Instead, it's the delays and disruptions in medical care ? a consequence of overcrowded and short-staffed hospitals ? that are leading to, at times, life-threatening complications.
"It can be just heartbreaking," says Beecroft, who recalls one recent patient of his who had a heart attack. "She had been scheduled for a cardiac bypass," a procedure done to improve blood flow when there's an obstructed or partially blocked artery, "but that surgery had been canceled."
Beecroft, who's affiliated with the American College of Emergency Physicians, told two other doctors about the patient. That's when it became clear to him that this was far from an isolated event: "Between the three of us, we had seen four patients who had cardiac complications from not being able to get a cardiac surgery."
There's no way to quantify how many Americans are now suffering serious, if not irreversible, harm to their health because hospitals are buckling under the weight of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. But doctors say the consequences are far-reaching, given how many procedures have been postponed.
Omicron cases are now falling in the U.S. overall, but the pressure on hospitals will not evaporate so quickly, doctors say. Hospitalizations generally trail infections by a week or two, and critically ill patients can require lengthy hospital stays.
And while some hospitals have restarted elective surgeries, others are still too overwhelmed to do so.
"Most facilities have lists of hundreds of people who have had procedures or non-urgent care delayed," says Dr. Tammy Lundstrom, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Trinity Health, which has hospitals in 25 states.
Like so many doctors, Matt Beecroft sees patients stuck in a painful limbo ? unsure of when they'll be able to get care. One in particular stands out to him. He'd come into the emergency department for recurrent, worsening headaches related to a tumor that needed to be cut out but wasn't yet, because the hospital where the surgery was scheduled was too full.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...lls-everything-from-heart-surgeries-to-cancer
My comment: Like I previously said due to covid hospitals are to full and had to cancel surgeries.
In my opinion and not the article, the health care system is turning like in third world countries. We hear and read in the news that the overwhelming majority of hospitalizations are due to non vaccinated people.
