Houston’s hospital accepts more COVID-19 patients ahead of’Rocky Week’

A white-haired woman in room 809 had a cramp in a hospital bed, her chest was high, her arms and legs struggling when she fell into a high-speed pump, pump, pump.

She had lost the war with the coronavirus that overtook her body. Staff at Memorial Herman Hospital at the Texas Medical Center aim to make the last days more comfortable with the help of an oxygen mask strapped to her face (who had turned off the ventilator). It was

After administering the powerful analgesic fentanyl, two nurses lifted a blanket over the shoulders of an elderly woman, her curly hair sticking out under the fleece. After a few minutes, her breathing was finally slow.

Pump… Pump… Pump.

Registered nurse Ivette Palomek stepped into the quiet corridor of the hospital’s COVID-19 ICU and closed the glass sliding door behind her. Around the wings of the horseshoe, 21 other patients filled all the rooms.

Palomek has just returned from New York and volunteered for the blockbuster Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. When I left Houston three months ago, the number of cases was small and most residents were ordered to stay home. Within a week, she realized that she had departed from one disaster zone to another.

“It’s a hassle to watch because I know what’s coming,” she said. “This is demoralization.”

Memorial Herman’s doctors and nurses say that the hospital’s ICU bed is almost full, and all facilities at the Texas Medical Center are ” A bed in an additional overflow area, operating in a 2” emergency plan. As planned, the total number of ICU beds used throughout the medical center is 1,367, including 512 of COVID-19.

According to medical center data, another 840 ICU bed is available based on the surge plan, and converting the bed can create more capacity.

Houston agreed it wasn’t like New York yet, the doctors agreed, hoping the country’s largest medical facility would not experience a collapse of its healthcare system.

The model predicts a peak in mid-to-late July, almost two months after the Texas economy resumes and cases begin to surge on busy Memorial Day weekends. Texas has become one of the worst epidemics in the United States. All eyes are on the state and Houston as health and government leaders work hard to delay the outbreak.

“It’s going to be a rocky week for a couple of weeks, but I’m going to get over this,” said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease specialist at Memorial Herman and UT Health.

Health professional risk

Dr. Pratik Doshi walked through the eighth floor hall of Sarofim Pavilion, a sparkling glass building that happened to open in February before the pandemic landed in Houston.

He is the attending physician of COVID ICU, which accounts for half of the landing. When he returned in April, he was occupying only 10 people, but he and his staff were watching the numbers grow. Due to the inflow, Memorial Hermann overflowed the patient into a medical ICU in the other half of the bed, accounting for about three-quarters of the 16 beds on Thursday.

Dosi had just completed his round, and he again passed each room separated from the corridor by all glass walls.

In 827, the man made a sign of the cross, kissed his fist and pointed at the sky.

In 814, the man was calling and spinning around.

In the surrounding room, others were lying steadily.

Almost all rooms were occupied by patients with some form of breathing apparatus-at best, oxygen support, and, worst case, extracorporeal membrane oxygenators. The device, called the ECMO, takes over the function of the lungs by circulating blood outside the body and back into the body, said Dr. Verapatel, Memorial Hermann’s Executive Medical Director of Emergency and Critical Care.

The youngest patient in the unit was 18 years old, Dosi said. She gave birth to a baby, was diagnosed with COVID-19 and is a serious illness.

Despite the circumstances, the hospital is calm. He believes that a week’s activities in this unit will fill one episode of the television show’ER’. After working on this disease for several months, even as more patients came, they found an effective pattern of surgery for them. On Friday, COVID had less than 38 ICU beds and 29 beds, according to hospital data.

Registered nurse Robert Lucky said he and his colleagues benefited from learning to treat the coronavirus before the bed was full and felt more stable than reported numbers. Told.

“I don’t think we’re hitting how many patients are reporting,” he said after leaving the patient’s pressure-tight chamber, which holds the COVID-infused air inside. Said. “It’s like the way we live today.”

According to hospital officials, it does not reduce the severity of the virus approaching dangerous levels in Houston. However, they repeatedly said they felt they had enough room to accommodate the increasing number of cases at Memorial Hermann. On Monday, an additional 16 beds will be available in the unused wing, and an additional 54 will be available.

Nursing floor manager Mehelle Jenkins said the need for more care in Houston could be frustrating because it could prevent much of the spread of the coronavirus.

“Some people don’t necessarily think it’s important to wear a mask, because they can be healthy individuals because we don’t see what we see every day,” she says. Said. “The person next to you may not be so healthy.”

Care of COVID patients is still dangerous for health professionals, but on the 8th floor, Dosi and his colleagues have new steps to science. They try to limit the frequency of visits to the room, and instead of the usual place at the bedside, a pump that extends outside the door can be used to infuse the patient with fluid.

They always wear masks and gowns and gloves only when they enter the patient’s room. They compile a to-do list on the glass, and when a nurse or resident is inside, they can communicate by writing on the wall.

Such precautions represent an almost unfamiliar hesitation for physicians.

“I have never thought of myself when caring for a patient,” said Doshi. “It goes against everything we have done so far.”

“An angel walking between us”

With more and more regular intake of COVID patients, Dosi said the emergency room felt lucky on Thursday when no one was waiting for the ICU’s location. Staff are always looking for openings to move patients-ER to ICU, general floor to ICU overflow, or ICU to general floor.

Jorge Zambra was one person enough to let go of his ICU bed at the hospital eight days later Wednesday night. At an intermediate medical unit on Thursday, he looked tired and had difficulty breathing after prolonged conversation.

His diagnosis began with the worst headache in his life and led to hospitalization after a sudden drop in oxygen levels.

Despite the experience being a “royal nightmare,” he never lost hope, the 70-year-old said.

“One minute after you feel good, the next few hours will start moving south again,” Zambra said. “They say the worst is over, but the recovery will be very long. I’m exhausted.”

Like all people hospitalized with COVID, the story of Zambra ​​indicated the illness of a person’s illness. The way he missed interaction, the way his illness temporarily stripped him of his personality.

Time moves slowly in the hospital. Zambra, a semi-retired UT Health Department manager, sends messages to family and friends, watches Memorial Hermann channels on TV, plays soft music and shows beautiful scenery.

When he was discharged, Zambra couldn’t wait to resume piano lessons and rehearses the next play of his Spanish theater group on obsessive-compulsive disorder.

He still has a way to go before it happens, but his chest trembles emotionally just thinking of the gratitude he owes to the people in the hospital where he saved his life ..

“The “thank you” I feel is greater than Reliant Stadium,” he said. “I didn’t know there were many angels walking among us.”

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