MY VISIT TO THE E.R.

On yesterday, 17 August 2021, I had to visit the Emergency Room of a local major hospital on a matter completely unrelated to COVID-19. I needed to get a family member admitted to the hospital for a relatively minor problem and the admission had to be done in the E.R. I thought you might find my experience in the E.R. interesting and/or useful if you should need to go to the E.R. these days.

My stay in the E.R. lasted six hours. This was relatively short according to my waiting-room mates. One had been there fifteen hours, others nearly as much. The place was packed and movement was fast-paced. Ambulances formed a parade as they backed into the bays to discharge their sick riders. After each ambulance pulled out, it stopped and the attendants disinfected the entire inside of the vehicle. I could not tell how many of the incoming were COVID patients but I knew many of them were.

There was a separate waiting room for the COVID patients adjacent to the main room, but patients had to come and go through the main room. One incoming patient was so weak she had to be brought in on a stretcher and laid out on chairs as a makeshift bed while a room was found for her (she was still there hours later when I left). Apparently hospital rooms were in very short supply. In fact, on yesterday every single Intensive Care Room in the state of Alabama was taken. There was not one free bed in an ICU in the state. There were no tents set up outside at this hospital, but I would not be surprised to see them soon.

The main waiting room had two large air purifiers in the middle of the room going full blast. I sat as close as I could to one. Of course, everyone is required to wear face covering at all times. 

I was lost in admiration of the staff members who were run ragged but refused to show it. The doctors, nurses, attendants, all the way to the janitors did heroic service in the E.R., all at risk to themselves. All of us owe them a big debt of gratitude. I honestly do not know how they hold up under this day after day. 

Intake procedures have become much more involved and complicated in the E.R. during COVID-tide. Incoming patients are checked repeatedly for vital signs. They were also given other tests and scans and chest X-Rays. There must have been a half-dozen steps involved in these checks. This alone ate up hours of time.

Finally, my family member was admitted to the hospital and was taken to the appropriate unit (incidentally, doing well today). I was dismissed and fled from the place as fast as I could. Six hours had seemed as an eternity.

So, after all this time of exposure to numerous people with COVID, I will be fortunate indeed if I do not come down with this terrible disease. I have had my two shots of Moderna. If I am invaded by the coronavirus, I should have a relatively minor bout. I am counting on this.

My advice to you, do not go near an Emergency Room unless it is a dire necessity. It will likely be overrun with COVID patients who will remain in the E.R. for a long time as rooms are found for them. Although the hospital may go to great lengths to protect incoming patients and their attendants, there can be no absolute protection in this kind of radioactive environment. Too, as everyone knows, the new Delta variant is far more contagious and damaging than the original strain of the coronavirus. It is the predominate strain nowadays.

We are  now in the third great surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is getting worse by the day particularly in our southern states. I have seen it first hand and it is not a pretty picture. God help us.