As the coronavirus surges, Houston confronts its hidden sacrifice: the people who die at home

In a broader sense, Houston emergency response personnel have also seen an increase in deaths during cardiac arrest calls.

Data from the Houston Fire Department show that since February, there has been a 45% increase in the number of cardiac arrest calls that paramedics have declared dead when they arrived at the scene. In March, the department recorded about 250 arrival notices. This is most of the month of the last two years up to that point. In June, that number was close to 300, surpassing either of the previous two Junes and surpassing 75. And on July 3, officials said that these days had the most such calls in recent memory: 18.

This does not include cases where a responding firefighter attempts to revive a person but fails. This has increased slightly since the beginning of the year.

Houston fire officials aren’t sure what is driving the increase, but senior captain Isabel Skyeagle said it appears to be linked to the coronavirus crisis. Some who were found dead on arrival had serious underlying health problems and were unaware that they were also infected with COVID-19, Skyeagle said. Others were simply delaying medical care for too long, she said, probably because they saw news reports about overloaded hospitals.

Skyeagle said she and her crew were the first to notice that more people had died before the paramedics arrived weeks before the internal data confirmed the trend. It was

“Usually these patients should have called us before, but now they don’t want to be transferred to the hospital, so they’re waiting too long,” Skyeagle said. “I’m catching them when they’re already in cardiac arrest, but it’s too late.”

Nearly 30 years after starting work, Skyeagle said he was accustomed to the fact that many people seeking help could not survive. But when the phone arrived late, it was frustrating when she could do nothing, and she said.

“Then put the stress of COVID’s situation on it,’is this person dying for COVID?’ It adds another layer of fear to the job and begins to increase every day.” Said Sky Eagle, referring to the fear of getting the virus and passing it on to others.

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Dr. Dario Gonzalez, deputy director of the New York City Fire Department, said the number of cardiac arrest calls the department had to respond to in March and April was overwhelming. The fire department responded at the peak of the New York outbreak Calls for more than 300 cardiac arrests per day, Compared to 65 average calls per day in the previous year.

“The psychological burden on healthcare providers is significant,” Gonzalez said. “You can lose one or two, but when it’s happening constantly, go, go….it seemed to continue.”

Gonzalez said he was worried about the first responders to post-traumatic stress disorder.

“If you hit the second wave, that would be a big problem for us and the hospital,” Gonzalez said. “Can people, nurses, doctors, EMTs, healthcare professionals, do it all over again? Everyone wants to say they face the challenge, but there are many challenges that can be addressed.”

After her mother died suddenly, Salazar said she and her brother were always in a panic and worried that their father and other loved ones would come next. Salazar’s mother had health problems before she had COVID-19, but nothing immediately became life threatening.

Salazar told his father that he wanted to take a CPR lesson after a failed attempt to revive his mother with chest compressions.

“At least I will know what to do if this happens again to someone else I love,” she said. “You’re just blank because you’re right there.”

As the Coronavirus crisis in Houston worsens, local hospitals report that baseline ICU beds have exceeded capacity, so Salazar has warned friends and relatives to take the virus seriously. She fears she might get the virus and pass it on to her father, who lived with her mother but was negative last week.

It mourned her father, Jose Salazar, 51, alone.

“I told my dad, “I can’t be at your house right now,” said Karen Salazar. “I feel that my mother is alone in the house where she died. We have lost our mother, we cannot lose you either.”