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* Mitchell Armentrout at the Sun-Times…
Nurses work 18-hour shifts while administrators are pulled from their offices and outfitted with personal protective equipment to help staff the hospital’s bustling COVID-19 testing site.
Other workers scramble to clear an intensive care unit bed that’ll immediately be filled by another coronavirus patient.
For the others waiting in line for critical care — including heart attack victims, car crash survivors and others who haven’t come down with severe respiratory symptoms from the virus — they’re looking at a five-hour ambulance ride to find the nearest available ICU bed.
And that’s only if the ambulance isn’t already behind schedule from its last out-of-state run with an infected patient.
It’s not a look back to 2020. It’s a September night in southern Illinois this week, nine months after life-saving vaccines were deployed in the pandemic fight. […]
The Illinois Department of Public Health said by the end of the week, it’ll have sent more than 100 additional health care workers to the region. The state agency also helped receive federal approval to start sending civilian patients to three V.A. hospitals.
Despite increasing the number of available ICU beds to 94 yesterday, from 84 earlier in the week, the region still has none available.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 2:44 am
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Am I supposed to have sympathy? The cure is free and widely available. I don’t feel sympathy for those who are burying their heads in the sand.
Comment by Anon E Moose Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 3:03 am
Third world counties that live in an alternate reality until real reality intrudes with death.
Comment by PublicServant Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 5:17 am
Anon E Moose.
-The cure is free and widely available.-
I support taking the vaccine but saying it’s outright a cure is also misinformation. That type of misinformation even gives the antivaxer a leg to stand on when someone who had the Vax gets the virus.
It’s a tool to reach immunity.
Comment by The Dude Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 6:33 am
This is all so sad and frustrating. Please; get the shot.
Comment by Tired Teacher Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 6:46 am
A lot of those counties have vaccination rates under 40%, some even under 30%.
What are the odds.
Comment by crow930 Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 7:19 am
If you’re not vaccinated, covid is coming for you. Don’t believe me? Ask your friends. Oh wait.
Comment by PublicServant Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 7:23 am
Southern Illinois is a large region and under served medically. Not even 100 ICU beds for one third of the State.
Comment by Al Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 7:26 am
One rationalization for this that’s out in social media is hospitals and ICU beds are meant to be filled up. Utter selfishness. Is this what they mean by making America great again? We are clearly seeing a divide between those who care about themselves and others, and those who would die and kill others for an infantile notion of freedom.
Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 7:39 am
=Southern Illinois is a large region and under served medically. Not even 100 ICU beds for one third of the State.=
A quote from the article addresses your “concern”.
“Of southern Illinois’ 88 ICU beds — a number that’s usually “totally adequate” for the region, Herrmann said — availability sank to only a few last month, and finally fell to zero Monday as the regional case positivity rate soared over 10%”
So the capacity was adequate before COVID hit.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:04 am
Sorry- Anonymous at 8:04 was me
Comment by JS Mill Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:05 am
=== Not even 100 ICU beds for one third of the State. ===
That’s the ticket. Let’s blame this on those elite medical providers…anybody but the dopes causing the problem for themselves and others. Geographically one third of the state is irrelevant. Land doesn’t get covid. Those 100 ICU beds are more than enough normally. No one could have planned for this population’s stupidity.
Comment by PublicServant Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:08 am
We must hold sympathy for those who are misled and suffer for it. No sympathy for those who mislead others for personal gain.
Comment by walker Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:11 am
== Am I supposed to have sympathy?==
Not much for the unvaxxed, but many of them have been misled by folks they trust. And certainly for those who are vaxxed and end up infected as well as all the folks with other medical issues who can’t get a bed.
One wonders if sending the unvaxxed home will become a thing to open up beds for others…consequences for their choice…
Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:19 am
This is a complete critical crisis situation and we still have people living in denial about this virus and what it can do to a person. With the likes of Bailey and DeVore encouraging people to not follow any of the mandates. More people are going to get infected and possibly hospitalized. If there’s room.
It’s like I hear “Radar O’Rielly”. Incoming wounded and “Hawkeye” saying where we going to put them?
On a sad side note. Mrs. Club J and I hosted some of the local military during the holidays after 9/11 that were stationed in Springfield and couldn’t go home. We became friends with some of them and have stayed in contact. One let me know yesterday his mother in law passed away. She was the cook at Sharon’s Cafe.
Comment by Club J Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:23 am
My sympathy is for the first responders, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff overworked past exhaustion. This was preventable.
Comment by Wensicia Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:32 am
Misled by folks they trust? is there a mass case of stupid down there? the vaccination rates are shockingly low…16.9% in the southernmost county. do they not believe in science? did they not get other vaccinations? do they just believe in science when they get very ill, have a car accident? at some point I wish we could charge people who spout factual inaccuracies because their words are literally killing people.
Comment by Amalia Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:33 am
I was reading that Idaho is having to pay traveling nurses around $250 an hour to get them to come, a state where they are rationing care. It’s way past time to start hitting these people in the pocketbook.
Comment by MrX Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:48 am
I don’t know how you fix this country at this point.
A hard core anti-vaxxer, anti-masker in-law of mine has been constantly spreading COVID conspiracies on Facebook but she recently tested positive for COVID and was briefly admitted to the hospital.
After she was discharged (thankfully), within 24 hours of her release she is back posting COVID conspiracies on FB.
How do you reason with a person like that?
Comment by hisgirlfriday Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:50 am
even in Springfield, admin type people are working additional hours to augment the nursing staff. This has been happened several times over the past year plus
Comment by truthteller Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 8:54 am
As a lifelong resident of southern Illinois I honestly believe that a fatality rate of 25% from Covid would not move the needle of vax rates.
Not pessimistic, simply based upon over five decades of observation.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:04 am
===Am I supposed to have sympathy? The cure is free and widely available. I don’t feel sympathy for those who are burying their heads in the sand.===
We should all have sympathy for those suffering. What this article is saying is there is access to care problems because of covid. I posted the other day how I wouldn’t go to southern Illinois because of this access to care issue. It has nothing to do with COVID per say. It has everything to do with potentially ending up in the ER or ICU.
Comment by Nagidam Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:04 am
Wow. Where is the facility being outfitted to handle these patients like Chicago had at the beginning of this? How muvh was spent building out McCormick Place last Spring? How about this rural area get the same accomdations.
Comment by Southern resident Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:05 am
When are we going to hold event sponsoring organizations responsible? Large carnivals and fall festivals are happening. Even the State of Illinois is hosting an event expected to draw hundreds of thousands in just two days: https://wsiltv.com/2019/11/03/fort-massac-grand-encampment-draws-hundreds-of-thousands/
Comment by SI Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:08 am
I have zero sympathy for folks who had the chance to get vaxxed, chose not to do it, and end up sick. As far as I am concerned, we should set up a bunch of beds on the roof of hospital parking garages for them so that they can get the UV rays that Trump thought was a cure-all. If they manage to stumble out of the entrance of the parking garage like Lazarus leaving the tomb more power to them, but in the mean time they won’t be taking up beds for people who are trying to bring this calamity to an end or good parking spots for the rest of us. Plus - exhausted health care providers won’t have to sit there holding their phones so that these folks can Facetime their last breaths with their families. Their families can buy drones if they want and watch it themselves. That’s self-sufficiency in action. Rant over.
Comment by The Way I See It Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:09 am
Burnout among available medical staff is inevitable if they’re not there already and will make a critical situation worse. I fear we’re headed toward a collapse of our healthcare system if something doesn’t change soon.
Comment by Cubs in '16 Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:10 am
Southern resident, you want to tell me where there is an empty, available building half the size of McCormick Place south of I-64?
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:10 am
Southern resident, you want to tell me where there is an empty, available building half the size of McCormick Place south of I-64?
SIU Arena Carbondale IL
Comment by What Goes Around Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:14 am
I have several snarky comments available, but this tragedy is just too much for me.
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:15 am
I am at a loss for newer words to express my own anger and angst and frustration… but I’ll say this, to the post;
When you lose someone to Covid who was misled and bought into irrational thought to any/every aspect from infection, treatment, vaccinations…
… the pain is not alleviated by having a thought of “I told you so” or “guess I was right”
Further?
Further, if you have that opportunity to talk with any health care worker on the front line in a raw candid way, be prepared to find *yourself* overwhelmed and helpless to the reality they are telling you they face and see no end because of misinformation and purposeful disinformation…
What makes me ill? This idea and premise about personal freedom… as the selfishly ignorant rip freedom from healthcare workers and first responders and their want to move forward from a global pandemic others feel comfortable continuing.
What more after 18+ months have I learned… it’s has not gotten to those things I’ve written above because the reality of no ICU beds, burnout, unnecessary death, long haul illness… I see no overwhelming wave towards completion of a full vaccination mission, I see a fed up majority with no time for the purposeful ignorance, and I see those with a calling to serve the sick and “do no harm” either overwhelmed in *every way*, nothing left… and others pushing made up science that doesn’t exist and using that trust of science to hurt so many, and many times for the financial gain of the gullible.
I’ve lost family and friends to the virus.
I’ve lost family and friends to the politics and ignorance of the virus propaganda.
I’ve lost. I’ve lost, but I’m here. I dunno if that’s how defeating those virus looks like, but it looks tragic at any level you see it, to me.
Be good to each other. Keep trying, as others keep trying to save lives too. Don’t be afraid to give truth and push back against lies… but be good to each other. Keep others in your heart, and strive to make things better, and safer, as we move on every day.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:33 am
“Third world counties don’t care they live in an alternate reality dispite real reality intruding with death.”
Fixed it for ya.
Comment by Huh? Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:39 am
==How do you reason with a person like that?==
You don’t. You just keep them 6 feet away from you in a well-ventilated area.
Comment by Cheryl44 Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:45 am
“SIU Arena Carbondale”
Sure, it’s available. Basketball has been cancelled.
How far up there, exactly, is your head?
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:45 am
==many of them have been misled by folks they trust.==
I’m going to a covid funeral next week for a parent in their 50s. Let’s hope they can watch Fox News/OANN in heaven.
Comment by Jocko Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:49 am
I live in the Eastern Bloc. All close friends/most family members are vaxed and their kids under 12 will come ASAP. Masks are seen in stores everywhere. The anti-mask/anti-vax crowd is a minority but vocal and unwilling to listen to any other info. Their reasons for denial of covid and the dangers of vax just get more unreal. The “researched” Minaj impotence tweet is hot right now and listened to. Most people I talk with increasingly say let the Darwin effect play out. The denial crowd has been given every opportunity and they have chosen ‘No’. Watch them scream when hospitals start triaging vaxed over unvaxed.
Comment by zatoichi Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 9:54 am
Maybe they should hide the shot in the horse dewormer?
I feel for the people whose job it is to persuade people to do what’s best for their health. All the pandering by gutless politicians and the lunacy profiteers has made their job much harder.
Comment by Socially DIstant Watcher Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:01 am
Meanwhile, in Kankakee, while they haven’t reach ICU capacity, the local health department board rejected *unanimously* a proposal to require health department employees to be vaccinated. We can’t even trust the people who are supposed to do the right thing to do the right thing.
https://www.daily-journal.com/news/local/board-rejects-vaccination-policy-for-health-department-employees/article_bd171d2e-1753-11ec-b5c5-4744880b94c4.html
Comment by DirtLawyer Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:04 am
Our health care system, even in more prosperous areas of the USA and IL, is a lot more fragile than we think. Take the money that is going to local tax abatements / incentives / rebates, and use that to start rebuilding our health care networks, especially in the rural and depressed parts if Illinois.
Comment by Ares Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:10 am
I agree with Flying Elvis. I grew up there but moved to the Chicago Burbs many years ago now. Nothing at this point will change things. I still see people question the vaccine saying it will cause you to get sick. I doubt anyone in those ICU beds is there becuase of a reaction to the vaccine. However people keep saying that plus something about “liberty or death”.
Comment by Publius Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:24 am
= How do you reason with a person like that? =
I think most adult people can be reasoned with, if they have all the information and are entrusted to make decisions knowing their choices will be honored.
Perhaps we should all be asked *while we are still uninfected* about our vaccination status, use of masks, and willingness to let modern science & physicians direct the course of our treatments. Get it on record. Then hold us to it, even if we later say we’ve changed our minds.
Zatoichi said above “watch them scream when hospitals start triaging vaxed over unvaxed.” That’s exactly what I think should happen. Personal freedom goes hand-in-hand with personal responsibility, as Laura Loomer will now demonstrate. Choose science or choose anti-science. It doesn’t matter to me as long as you stay more than six feet away and don’t take up a precious ICU bed because you changed your mind.
Comment by Dysfunction Junction Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:26 am
I left my local Primary doc’s office yesterday with both my doc and I in tears. It’s like a war zone down here and yet the loud and uninformed continue with stunts, activities, and actions that are destroying the very communities in which they live. The current theme - it’s all a big lie - there are beds bud no staff because of vaccine mandates. No, staff are leaving because of burn out. You can hold health care workers hostage in an unworkable situation for 18 months and expect them to survive. Frankly - it’s just plain scary down here anymore.
Comment by DownSouth Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:29 am
Great comment by Oswego Willy. I would only add that this is beyond ignorance, we have a large segment of our society who are maliciously attacking pandemic mitigation and response efforts. Public health professionals suffer threats and economic harm. We now see kids walking through lines of protestors screaming about the simple measures to save their lives.
Comment by Norseman Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:34 am
The electronic information signs along the Interstates in southern Illinois should carry this message:
DRIVE CAREFULLY
ICU BEDS ARE FULL
MASK AND VAX
Comment by Yossarian Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:36 am
Have ICU beds declined in southern IL during the past decade? Because population has. Even with an aging population, those beds were sufficient last decade with a lower pop.
McCormick was an easy sale at the time. No one knew what the virus could do, so it was setup because Chicago area is a 10Mil pop area.
It’s harder to justify that in southern IL an area much smaller in pop in the same footprint as Chicago. Also, we know how to get ICU usage down now. Universal masking, social distancing, vaccines, avoiding crowded spaces etc.
Besides, since they are admitting civvies to VA hospitals that is very similar to building another hospital.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 10:51 am
Adding to my comment, Southern Illinois was the least amount of people because no one came to get their shots.
Comment by sladay Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 11:08 am
I was on the vaccine mission with the national Guard since January to September 10th and our team did over 75,000 shots by June. By the end of the mission we visited almost every area of the state. But stories like this just make me sad, I know we vaccinated lots of people but the pandemic is far from over.
Comment by sladay Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 11:10 am
Long response:
ICU Beds
This whole thing about “ICU beds are meant to be filled because hospitals want to fill them to make money”, well my wife worked ICU for years in DuPage county and I can tell you she would get sent home from time to time (and not paid) because they didn’t have enough ICU patients. There were events that would happen and we would know she would be working (the first wet heavy snow of the year would guarantee she would be working). General clinical guidelines put people in ICU beds when they need to be in ICU beds, it isn’t ‘hey we only have 4 guests at the hotel so let’s put them all in a suite’ they don’t ‘upgrade’ people.
Sympathy
If nothing else have it for the people who have to deal with this. This is going to have an impact on healthcare professionals and staffing for years, like other fields Nursing has a lot of boomers working in it. We already have an educational pipeline issue for nursing and it is going to get significantly worse. Why, because plenty of folks are going to leave the field or ’step down’ in the nature of the clinical setting they work in.
==many of them have been misled by folks they trust.==
Welcome to adulthood. Also, what you know about something changes you can change your viewpoint and understanding. Over a billion people around the world have gotten the shot. Perhaps I am a cynical AARP member, but yeah entities you trust mislead you, but that isn’t a reason to trust some dude on FB.
Get the damn shot
Comment by OneMan Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 11:22 am
= Am I supposed to have sympathy? The cure is free and widely available. =
Please don’t say the “cure”. The vaccine isn’t a cure, it provides a level of immunity. A “cure” is something completely different.
Those with the right intentions being inaccurate allows for the cynical to take advantage and look more convincing.
Comment by Incandenza Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 11:24 am
===The vaccine isn’t a cure, it provides a level of immunity===
The vaccine is most definitely a cure for stopping hospitals from being overrun. Your alleged reasonableness is harmful.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 11:26 am
AFSCME 31–any comment on the lack of ICU beds in southern Illinois? Of which many of your members’ institutions are located?
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 11:32 am
I know I’m kinda preaching to the choir here but I’ve been arguing hard with people about the best approach to convince unvaxxed to vax. I keep hearing that we need to reach out, be gentle, and provide facts. But I call BS on that - we did that for months to no avail. We need to stop coddling the unvaxxed - my view, trying to balance public health vs (maybe) overreaching govt - is that every hedonistic (in the good sense) activity - restaurants, travel, concerts, gatherings, etc should require vax. Not a test but a vax.
Comment by WestBurbs Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 12:07 pm
Anything keeps me from croaking… I call a cure.
Comment by Dotnonymous Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 12:07 pm
It’s not just the beds. It’s the total meltdown in available nurses.
>> Southern resident, you want to tell me where there is an empty, available building half the size of McCormick Place south of I-64?
>> SIU Arena Carbondale IL
… but who’s gonna staff it? No way you could get enough healthcare professionals to outfit something that large right now, regardless.
This isn’t just an isolated phenomenon for Southern IL, either. Try not to get sent to an ER in Chicago right now. The wait times are getting horrible, just to get admitted. You could be sitting in the waiting room for a perfectly normal, minor procedure - for 7-8 hours. Again just to get in. The nurses are burnt out, the travel nurses can’t be everywhere at once … so on, so on. It’s very good money currently for the nurses who are still soldiering on, but everyone has their limits.
Rant over. But again, it’s only partially about the number of beds. If there’s no one there to look after someone, the beds can be sitting there empty, but the ICU is full.
Comment by ZC Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 12:08 pm
=How about this rural area get the same accomdations.=
When McCormick was up and running there was no available vaccine.
Southern Illinois residents have made their choice.
Comment by JS Mill Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 2:02 pm
=Where is the facility being outfitted to handle these patients like Chicago had at the beginning of this? How muvh was spent building out McCormick Place last Spring? How about this rural area get the same accomdations.=
How about the residents of this rural area get the free, easy, effective vaccine so giant hospitals aren’t needed?
Comment by LakeCo Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 2:04 pm
FYI, when medical people talk about an available bed, they mean somewhere to keep a patient plus medical personnel to care for that patient.
Comment by Cheryl44 Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 2:14 pm
Some people have to learn the hard way. The problem is that by the time they learn, it may be too late for them, and they may be taking up an ICU bed so there’s no room for the heart attack patient.
Comment by anon2 Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 2:57 pm
Thank you - Norseman -, and thank you for highlighting what children are facing. A good reminder.
My goodness.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 3:14 pm
Pandemics are the death of… childhood?
Scary time to be a kid…no doubt.
Comment by Dotnonymous Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 3:59 pm