A record number of patients are hospitalized across the state of Kentucky.
In Idaho, some hospitals are now rationing care and say they are running out of critical equipment, space and staff. Experts are closely tracking the new mu variant that is confirmed in 28 states.
Last week, Kentucky reported more than 30,000 new cases, according to Gov. Andy Beshear, a weekly record since the onset of the pandemic. “I would honestly say it's at least three times worse than what it was the first time,” nurse Kerri Eklund, from Baptist Health Hardin, in Elizabethtown, told ABC News. “We're seeing a lot of people getting really sick. There are patients that will come in and they'll be doing okay for a few days and then, in the blink of an eye, they go downhill.”
“I wasn't expecting this much of a surge again. In my opinion, it's worse than the previous ones,” Brock said. “The patients who are vaccinated are doing a lot better,” said Eklund. In fact, “patients who are vaccinated, most of the time don't even need oxygen, and they're just here because they have a few of the other complications and they're monitored. Most of the patients who end up going downhill, unfortunately, have not been vaccinated.”
The patients, “have been doing all they can and trying their hardest, and then they just get to the point that their body can't handle it anymore. And I think their minds start to break, because they've been giving it all and they're still not getting any better.”Medical professionals, whether doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants or respiratory therapists -- all are stretched so thin that many are experiencing exhaustion, compassion fatigue and burnout.
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