Oregon breaks COVID hospitalization record for third day in a row

“Our hospitals are full,” said Zonies. “Patients are boarding and being cared for in emergency departments when they should be admitted to hospital beds. Our ICUs are full. Our doctors and nurses are exhausted and rightfully frustrated because this crisis is avoidable. It is like watching a train wreck coming and knowing that there’s an opportunity to switch tracks, yet we feel helpless while we watch the unnecessary loss of life.”…

Dr. Grant Niskanen is the vice president of medical affairs at Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He spoke to KGW-TV about the number of younger patients that are arriving at the hospital with COVID-19 and needing replacements of vital organs.

“We had one person a couple weeks ago that got a lung transplant,” said Niskanen. “We have a second person that now is being evaluated for a lung transplant, and when I talk about the patients—like nine or 10 that are currently in our hospital, that’s for an acute infection—that’s not talking about the four or five that have been here for 20 plus days who are no longer infected but still need such amounts of high flow oxygen that we’re unable to send them home.”