They have so many ICU patients that their emergency room is now functioning as an intensive care unit, Rappai said.

This Mississippi woman’s unvaccinated husband is battling Covid-19 in an ICU: ‘I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through this’
“We may be using an ER room as an ICU, which then delays the person who comes to the emergency room with a broken arm, because you have to wait to get into a room to be seen,” Rappai said. “It’s a tough situation.”

In the nearby hospital where Dyess works — where the intensive care unit usually treats complicated stroke patients from across the state — ICU patients are also spilling over into the emergency room. To keep more ICU beds available, the hospital has had to put off surgeries that require overnight stays, including hip and knee surgeries for patients who are “severely crippled with arthritic conditions,” she said.

“One of our cardiologists couldn’t even get one of his own patients here that was having a heart attack. They had to send him to another hospital that was able to take him,” Dyess said.