Florida has run out of ICU beds, as of July 25, in at least 50 hospitals — 8 in Miami-Dade County and 6 in Broward County. Since July 4, the rate of those infected requiring hospitalization has jumped by almost 80%, with an increased logjam for the ICU. About 6.1% of Florida’s positive tests are minors, translating to about 25,000 minors. This weekend, a nine-year-old girl who was turned away from a local hospital, died at home of COVID-19. She had presented with a very high fever, but no pre-existing conditions. Such tragedies are unavoidable when a country’s hospital care is downsized for a “just-in-time” delivery of medical care.
A “death panel” has been set up In Rio Grande City, Texas, where the Starr County Memorial Hospital has been overwhelmed. Without enough capacity, they are sending people home to die and admitting the ones that survive a triage evaluation, showing they have a greater likelihood of surviving. The county of 64,000 has confirmed, as of July 24, there are 1,769 COVID-19 cases, or 2.8% of the county. And while there are 50 corpses of patients who had been treated for COVID, 36 of them await the state’s certification of the cause of death. One nurse of almost 30 years, Coronado Rios, said: “We are not ICU capable, but we are doing ICU work. We now have a state emergency response team of nurses, medics, respiratory therapists, and nurse assistants, and last week two doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists came from the U.S. Navy. We are doing the best we can with the resources available.” He is now recuperating from COVID-19 at home. Starr County Judge Elroy Vera posted: “Unfortunately, Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment, and who is sent home to die by their loved ones.”
