As of Friday, there are 99 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Calgary, 17 of whom are in intensive-care units. Edmonton, on the other hand, has 163 hospitalizations, with 36 ICU admissions.
One registered nurse working on the COVID-19 ICU unit at Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital said until about a month ago, the hospital had only a handful of patients with the coronavirus. Now, staff are having to make phone calls to family to let them know their loved one is going to succumb to the virus.
“Up until the middle to the end of October, our patients were mostly post-op complications, attempted suicides or alcohol withdrawal. Now, we have overflowed our ICU beds,” said Mary, who requested her name be changed to protect her privacy.
“We’re now almost all COVID. We don’t really have room for other patients … All of us have been hit pretty hard by it, but we know there’s more coming, just by the patients we have right now.”
Even for Albertans who recover, being hospitalized with COVID-19 is a lengthy ordeal that can potentially result in long-lasting physical and mental symptoms.
According to Alberta Health, of the 1,544 Albertans who have been hospitalized with the virus since the pandemic began in March, the average patient was admitted for seven days.
For the 283 Albertans overall who have been in ICU, that average stay extends to 10 days. Among all detected cases, 3.5 per cent end up in hospital, and 0.7 are brought to ICU.
These rates are highest in Albertans aged 70–79 and with at least one existing health condition, but about a sixth of ICU admissions have been patients without any comorbidities.
“These patients are not in ICU for short periods of time. I would say about half of what we have now have been with us for 18 days,” Mary said. “And they’re going to be here for way longer. They’re not even close to being ready to leave.
“In my 15 years as a nurse, I have never cared for patients who are so sick and so unstable as these COVID patients we get.”
Source:- Calgary Herald
