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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Bogobam here. The COVID nineteen pandemic has claimed more

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Speaker 1: than seven twenty thousand lives in the United States to date.

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Speaker 1: In terms of sheer numbers, it's become the deadliest event

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Speaker 1: in US history, surpassing the influenza epidemic and multiple wars.

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Speaker 1: As shocking as this number is, it doesn't capture the

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Speaker 1: full scope of COVID related casualties. Since the summer surge

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Speaker 1: began in early August, due mostly to the delta variant,

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Speaker 1: a COVID nineteen has overwhelmed hospitals and I See us

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Speaker 1: across the country. The federal government's latest data show Georgia

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Speaker 1: and Alabama are still at nearly a hundred percent of

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Speaker 1: their intensive care unit capacity, while Texas hovers it more

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Speaker 1: than I See You capacity. Idaho is at This type

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Speaker 1: of surge has forced many facility used to go on diversion,

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Speaker 1: leaving few resources for non COVID emergencies. For the article,

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Speaker 1: this episode is based on How Stuff Work. Spoke with

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Speaker 1: Dr John Delzel, vice president of Northeast Georgia Health System.

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Speaker 1: He described the situation as pretty dire saying, you just

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Speaker 1: get the point where you can't physically take care of

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Speaker 1: more people. So what happens when hospitals are so full?

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Speaker 1: Some may go on what's called diversion. Diversion describes a

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Speaker 1: situation when ambulance drivers are asked to avoid taking patients

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Speaker 1: to a specific hospital. Under normal circumstances, paramedics are supposed

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Speaker 1: to drive straight to the nearest hospital or emergency facility,

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Speaker 1: but when a diversion notices in place, they may have

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Speaker 1: to break that rule. Hospitals go on diversion when they

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Speaker 1: have more patients than beds. Doctors working under such circumstances

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Speaker 1: will usually try to outsource their patient's care to another

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Speaker 1: hospital if possible, in hopes of getting them treated sooner.

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Speaker 1: During a news conference in August, doctor Robert Jansen, chief

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Speaker 1: medical officer for Grady Health System in Atlanta, explained, a

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Speaker 1: diversion doesn't mean you can't come. It's our way of

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Speaker 1: communicating to the ambulances that were full, but we never

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Speaker 1: turn anyone down. Hospital diversion is rare, but not unprecedented.

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Speaker 1: It remains controversial in many states, and it's never an

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Speaker 1: option that medical facilities invoke. Lightly before COVID nineteen. Diversions

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Speaker 1: mainly occurred because of mechanical issues like power outages or

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Speaker 1: flooding at hospitals. While overcrowding from a single disease has

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Speaker 1: been historically very uncommon, it has happened. For example, hospitals

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Speaker 1: in New York City diverted ambulances during the height of

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Speaker 1: the AIDS epidemic, but diversions on the scale of the

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Speaker 1: current COVID nineteen wave are practically unheard of. Overcrowded hospitals

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Speaker 1: are forced to put patients wherever they can, often on

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Speaker 1: always stretchers or in overflow tents, but in a pact

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Speaker 1: I see you, patients may have to wait hours for

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Speaker 1: a staffed bed to open up. In severe cases, a

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Speaker 1: few hours can be the difference between life and death.

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Speaker 1: Since July, COVID cases and hospitalizations in the US have skyrocketed.

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Speaker 1: The delta variant is partly to blame, along with waning

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Speaker 1: vaccination rates and relaxed mask and indoor gathering policies. More

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Speaker 1: than of patients hospitalized with COVID nineteen are unvaccinated, and

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Speaker 1: the small handful of fully vaccinated COVID nineteen hospitalizations are

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Speaker 1: nearly all patients with multiple comorbidities. During the latest wave,

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Speaker 1: hospitals in states with low vaccination rates have been pushed

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Speaker 1: to the brink. In a press briefing, Dr James Schmia,

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Speaker 1: chief operating officer at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, said,

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Speaker 1: right now of our I See You beds house patients

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Speaker 1: who are on a ventilator or breathing machine. So when

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Speaker 1: we did have this amount of COVID it was thirty

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Speaker 1: six percent. In Georgia, only about thirteen percent if I

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Speaker 1: See You beds statewide remain unoccupied. As of September twenty

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Speaker 1: TEWOD only about a hundred and thirty individual I See

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Speaker 1: You beds were available in Kentucky. In August, Alabama ran

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Speaker 1: out of I SeeU beds entirely. How stuff works. Also

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Speaker 1: spoke with Dr Mark Mardsen, the chief medical officer for

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Speaker 1: Ascension St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He said, we

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Speaker 1: just don't really have the resources and the staff to

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Speaker 1: be able to handle these unlimited numbers of patients. Every

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Speaker 1: hospital in the city essentially has been on almost continuous

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Speaker 1: diversion for the last several weeks. When every hospital is

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Speaker 1: on diversion, it means that effectively, none of them are. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: folks still need urgent care outside of COVID nineteen. On

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Speaker 1: top of the virus, doctors must contend with the usual

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Speaker 1: number of strokes, heart attacks, car accidents, and other agencies.

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Speaker 1: With too few beds to go around, these patients might

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Speaker 1: not receive the care they need in time. In late July,

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Speaker 1: a twelve year old boy nearly died when his appendix

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Speaker 1: burst while waiting for more than six hours in a

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Speaker 1: Florida emergency room, and in August, US Army veteran Daniel

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Speaker 1: Wilkinson did die of gallstone pancreasis, a treatable issue, while

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Speaker 1: his Texas doctors scrambled to find him a bed. It's

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Speaker 1: been eighteen months since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US. Doctors, nurses,

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Speaker 1: and hospital staff around the country have been working tirelessly,

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Speaker 1: putting their own lives on the line in order to

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Speaker 1: save others. Now many are physically and emotionally exhausted. Martsen said,

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Speaker 1: everybody's tired. Everybody's sad because so many people are dying.

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Speaker 1: So much of this is preventable, which is frustrating healthcare providers.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article is your hospital

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Speaker 1: divert ambulances because of COVID nineteen on house to works

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Speaker 1: dot com, written by Joanna Thompson. Brain Stuff is production

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Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com,

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Speaker 1: and it is produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.