El Paso, grieving after the Walmart massacre targeting Latinos in 2019, now battles the coronavirus.
Patients who developed PTSD were already fearful of being in public places after the attack. Now, as COVID-19 cases surge, they have to weigh the risk of going to clinics for treatment.These patients need physical touch and togetherness with family and friends, which is harder to get in these times of social isolation and distancing, Delgado said. Mental illness thrives in isolation, he said.
"During these last few months, we've seen a rise in the suicide attacks and the very severe psychiatric presentations," Delgado said. Add the massacre anniversary, and"I'm really bracing for an uptick in the cases, in severe presentations," and seeing those cases in emergency rooms, he said.For two weeks after the massacre, Dr.
Trauma surgeon Alejandro Rios Tovar took care of El Paso shooting victims and is now grappling with surging coronavirus cases."The shooting a year ago, it came, we treated our patients, we came together as a hospital in a moment of crisis," said Ríos Tovar, an assistant professor who is the center's associate trauma medical director."The difference is, with COVID, it is nonstop, it just gets worse and worse.
He recounted how one of the hospital's respiratory therapists became infected with COVID-19 from a patient. The therapist's husband then contracted the virus and died.The anniversary seems to have come so quickly that Ríos Tovar isn't really sure how he'll mark the day, particularly with his mind and hands so focused on the coronavirus.
"Although we've helped people get back to their lives or try to get back, there are others that didn't have the chance to come back," he said.
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