The toll

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CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – COVID-19 is taking its toll. Across the nation hospitals are filling up and there aren’t enough hospital beds, more importantly there aren’t enough medical professionals to take care of the ever-increasing patients.

This last week alone netted Cibola an additional 390 positive cases – for context, before the recent spike in COVID-19 cases; Cibola was teetering in the low 300s for months since the pandemic broke out. 390 new positive cases means a 36.8 percent spike from last week.

Also climbing drastically are the associated deaths, Cibola County now has 38 residents who have lost their lives to the virus. Cibola has seven new deaths since last week, a 22.5 percent increase, one death for every day of the week.

This data comes as Cibola General Hospital in Grants, New Mexico, is hitting a point where patients may need to be turned away because there isn’t enough space or enough staff to take care of all of the sick or injured. That time could be coming very soon, CGH professionals warn.

The toll on CGH

“COVID seems to be more communicable – more catching – and it seems to be at least more lethal to some folks than the average influenza virus,” said CGH Chief of Staff Dr. MacFarland Bridges.

CGH Chief Hospitalist Dr. Amanda Young agreed with Dr. Bridges sentiment.

“There are certain risk factors that you can predict but, gosh, not always. Sometimes you just can’t believe [what COVID-19] does,” Dr. Young said.

In last week’s edition of the Cibola Citizen, Dr. Young described COVID-19 as “unpredictable,” explaining that the virus affects different people in different ways, and that while not everyone who catches COVID-19 will die, many of them will due to the nature of the virus.

“It does one thing to one person and one thing to another person, unlike the flu that does these couple of things that we know, we can treat and [the patient] can get better. There are no long-standing effects from it, but people with COVID are sometimes permanently – or even up to six months – on oxygen, or in rehab for a few months,” Dr. Young explained.

At the present moment there is no need to turn patients away from CGH, but if the COVID-19 numbers continue to rise, so too will the people who need to spend time in a hospital. The fuller beds get, the less staff that are available to take care of other patients; this means less people can be treated at CGH.

Dr. Bridges and Dr. Young explained that CGH not only has an obligation but strives to take care of every patient that enters their hospital. They don’t want to turn patients away, but if COVID numbers continue to rise they may not have a choice.

The hospital absorbs a large chunk of the COVID-19 treatment that a patient would typically pay for, and when hospitals are not allowed to perform elective surgeries, they start losing money at fast rates. During the first lockdown of the state hospitals were not allowed to perform these surgeries, currently hospitals are allowed to perform elective surgeries. However, several hospitals across the country, and at least one – Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque N.M. – is cancelling all elective surgeries to free up resources for COVID-19 patients.

“We are bleeding money,” Dr. Young said.

“Our hospital, historically, has been fiscally sound, but many small hospitals, historically, are not. Many of those small hospitals won’t survive,” Dr. Bridges said, he and Dr. Young agreed that any hospital shutting down, especially in rural areas, is a tragedy for all of the people who live in that community.

“It would be a disaster for the community, to lose the [industry] we’ve already lost and then to lose the hospital on top of that, it would be a complete disaster,” Dr. Bridges explained.

The toll on doctors and nurses

“We love what we do, but the thing is that this so much more taxing on the nurses, the staff. The cleaning staff – every COVID patient, if they do leave, has to have this extra terminal cleaning so even our housekeepers are working double and extra hard,” Dr. Young said.

“I’m exhausted, I normally might be a little more energetic than this,” Dr. Young explained, “Today is my first day off so I’m excited, but overall, its been really tough. It’s tough physically and it’s tough mentally because I’ve seen so many people die, and they’re dying in the hospital and they can’t even have family come in because of the restrictions. So, we’re doing Facetime while someone is dying, and everyone is crying – it’s tough. Taking off the [Personal Protective Equipment] and putting it back on every 30 minutes is hard – you’re exhausted, sweating and can’t breathe. Its really taxing.

“Its okay, its just part of the job but its different medicine, we’re practicing in a different world right now and its just more taxing. Mentally I’ve noticed that the people who do the worst are those with a negative attitude, because people get depressed; every day I have a pep talk with my patients. Everyone says that if you have three things you’re grateful for every day, studies show that changes your body chemistry, so if you’re negative, inflammation actually increases in your body; so I play cheerleader for patient after patient after patient and sometimes that can be really hard, I just can’t stand to see people die anymore, but we have to pretend. I don’t know, its just tiring. It takes its toll.”

Dr. Young is not the only professional at CGH that feels this way, she explained that the only thing the community can do to help the hospital is to not get COVID-19.

“If we had that, and a decrease in COVID patients, that would be a very merry Christmas,” Dr. Bridges explained.

“Numbers and figures are not political… some people might say this a political thing, however, why would Nepal’s numbers be skyrocketing when most people in Nepal are just trying to find something to eat. They don’t care if its Biden or Trump, same thing with Peru, they don’t care. But the virus is happening there, they probably aren’t fudging their numbers in Nepal or Peru, this is a worldwide thing that is actually happening,” Dr. Bridges explained.

“The patients are just going out like its no big deal despite COVID, they don’t realize how that effects the hospital and all of us who work here,” Dr. Young expressed.

A direct plea

Both Dr. Bridges and Dr. Young were given the opportunity to address Cibola County directly, this is what they said.

Dr. Bridges: “I sound like a broken record, wash your hands and wear your mask. Socially distance yourselves and don’t put yourself in situations where you’re going to be at risk of getting this and avoid people who are being sloppy.”

Dr. Young: “We’re actively seeing a surge in this community, and the hospital system is being affected by it. So, we need to be extra vigilant right now – if you were getting lazy than you need to step it up again. Drink plenty of water, exercise, take all of your vitamins, don’t take drugs or alcohol.”

“We have a hospital that has capabilities that are finite. Do your part to protect the community,” Dr. Bridges added.