Nurses at Memorial Hospital in South Bend work with coronavirus patients inside the hospital’s COVID-19 unit on Nov. 10. Provided image
Doctors and nurses in Michiana, struggling to maintain care as COVID-19 cases spiral, feel like they’re living in their own world these days.
More people would take the virus seriously, they say, if they could see and hear what’s happening within the hospitals’ walls.
They would see nurses working so many shifts and so exhausted that they look like “the walking dead,” as described by Elkhart General cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr. Walter Halloran.
They would see a scramble to find enough beds to keep up with current patients, let alone those coming soon if case rates continue to rise.
They would hear the worry about running out of equipment, and about COVID-19 cases taking up so many resources that care for other ailments will suffer.
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