Are Big City Hospitals Really Getting Hit With COVID-19 Pts?

Nurses COVID

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I'm almost embarrassed to post this... I am an ED nurse at a 450-bed hospital in the midwest. We have not been taxed by COVID patients yet. My wife has become somewhat of a conspiracy theorist and is questioning everything. She found a thread somewhere that convinced her that what we are seeing on TV is not really happening. We have had some serious arguments about this stuff, but she won't stop. She said that lots of nurses were reporting that nothing was happening at their hospitals.

I would like to see if any of the nurses from the hospitals that are being seriously affected are on this forum and can comment. I realize that most of you are probably too exhausted to even get on a forum.

Thank you!

We are a quaternary center and are being hit hard. Not NYC, refrigerated trucks in the parking lot hard but hard. 70+ on vents and growing and we are only one of 9 hospitals. Almost all from congregate living situations. I have no idea what condition the other hospitals are in or their numbers. My state is logging new cases every day by the hundreds. About 20% of our state’s positives are hospitalized with 28% of those in the ICU. Current CFR is 5.1%. Testing is ramping up so we expect that to start decreasing. Still our local ID docs and epidemiologists are projecting we will end up with a mortality rate around 0.3-0.5%. Again that’s just a projection. We just started opening up. It was needed but I’m a little anxious about what we will be seeing in two weeks.

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Yes, this is real and happening.
I work inpatient hospice in Chicago, at a smaller community hospital. 5 of our beds (Out of 10) are reserved for COVID patients. They have been constantly full for the past 3.5 weeks. When a COVID patient dies there is another one waiting to come. And another, and another. I started my shift this morning waiting in a line at central supply to get more body bags because our unit has run out of them. It’s real.

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We’ve extended our ICU capacity into other units, we started with 1 unit of Covid. Now overtaking med surg and tele beds. My medical unit turned into all Covid last week. NonCovid pts are occupying spaces formerly used by OB, Peds, and GI lab as med surg overflow. Currently we are keeping pace with our discharges/deaths and space in the ICU. We are running low on body bags, have a refrigerated truck for bodies, (morgue has been full) run low on ABG kits, disposable stethoscope, size small N95,(I need to get refitted for alternative n95?)
We aren’t provided with bouffant hats anymore, they are conserving them for OR. A bunch of nurses have been purchasing cloth head coverings.

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For those of you working in NYC, Detroit, Chicago and out east, bless you!

My state still has low fatalities and lots of negatives compared to many others. This makes me nervous because there are so many people left to acquire the virus. I believe our cases will be a little behind the east coast, but it will happen, especially when we open up and people start congregating in enclosed spaces (bars and restaurants). The virus is like a swell spreading its way up dozens of rivers.

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Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

Does being infected with COVID-19 make you immune?

We will need to do long-term studies in humans to find out if people who recover from COVID-19 are immune and to learn how long that immunity will last. But again, based on what we know about how our bodies respond to other viruses, it is highly likely that the antibodies we make after infection with the COVID-19 virus will provide immunity for a period of time...

https://blogs.webmd.com/webmd-doctors/20200408/are-you-immune-to-covid19-after-youve-had-it

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
15 minutes ago, herring_RN said:

Does being infected with COVID-19 make you immune?

We will need to do long-term studies in humans to find out if people who recover from COVID-19 are immune and to learn how long that immunity will last. But again, based on what we know about how our bodies respond to other viruses, it is highly likely that the antibodies we make after infection with the COVID-19 virus will provide immunity for a period of time...

https://blogs.webmd.com/webmd-doctors/20200408/are-you-immune-to-covid19-after-youve-had-it

We should expect the typical immunity of weeks to months, right? Most COVIDs don't impart long term immunity from re-infection.

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