Tucson-area hospitals are increasing bed space, collaborating with each other and admitting fewer patients as they prepare for an expected surge in COVID-19 cases later this month.
There’s also a lot of waiting going on, as ordered ventilators and personal protective equipment fail to arrive.
As of Saturday, there had been 52 deaths in Arizona and 326 known cases of the coronavirus reported in Pima County.
Arizona is expected to have a surge of infected patients within the next couple of weeks, according to predictions from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The emergency rooms are emptier than usual right now, partly as a result of so many people staying home, thereby avoiding injuries and emergencies, and also because people are avoiding hospital visits unless they are absolutely necessary.
“Hospitals have emptied out in preparation for the surge that is almost certainly coming,” said Pima County Health Director Dr. Bob England.
Some doctors and nurses are taking time off now because they are not needed, a trend that’s expected to change dramatically later this month.
“There’s plenty of capacity in the hospitals right now, plenty of staff,” he said.
Ventilators and personal protective gear that have been ordered either by the Health Department or the individual hospitals have not arrived. Neither have the number of testing kits hospitals here would like to have.
“Everybody is trying to order equipment and supplies. It’s the same old story you’ve been hearing everywhere,” England said. “You can have all the good will in the world and all the planning in the world, but if the supplies aren’t there, you have nothing to share.”
“Trying to think of contingencies”
Pima County has ordered 500 Ambu bags, a device that helps people struggling to breathe. The bags require constant hand compression to work. It’s a less-than-ideal alternative to a ventilator, England said.
“We’re trying to think of contingencies and when we have something available that might be useful, we’re getting them,” he said. “I’ve never been able to order things so easily in my career, but most of it is still not here. Very little of it has been delivered.”
England said the Health Department is asking people who have had the virus and are fully recovered if they would be willing to volunteer to use the Ambu bags to help patients experiencing restricted breathing.
“This is one of the questions they are being asked when we do the case investigations,” he said. “It’s something I hope we won’t need.”
It’s not the only way the Health Department is getting creative in light of government supply shortfalls.
Local distilleries are making surface disinfectants and hand sanitizers for health-care workers, he said, and masks are being sewn and crafted here.
While patients and their families are experiencing dramatic changes, preparations have advanced unevenly across the area’s hospitals.
“Some facilities have empty wards and skilled nursing facilities right on their property,” England said. “Some are not in as good a position.”
There have been 66 hospitalizations for the coronavirus in Pima County so far, with 24 patients needing intensive care. The county reports these numbers on a cumulative basis, not daily, but England said that may change if the hospitals become overwhelmed with patients.
“Will you please ask”
For Pascua Yaqui Tribal Council member Herminia Frias, hospital changes during the COVID-19 crisis meant only a couple of Juan J. Frias Sr.’s children could be there in person to say goodbye to their father.
Frias said the staff at St. Mary’s Hospital that Friday night a little over a week ago was kind and helpful when her father was there, and she understood the reasons for the visitor restrictions, but that didn’t make it easier. Her father, who was 85, had been taken there by ambulance after some days of declining health. He was admitted while his children waited in the parking lot at 1601 W. St. Mary’s Road, some distance from the large white tent that’s now the entrance to the emergency room.
“There was nothing abnormal or extraordinary that happened to my dad, his body was tired and he was ready to enter his next world,” she wrote in a Facebook post, which she gave her consent to share in the Star.
After some time passed, the siblings asked the attending doctor if their father could be discharged so they could take him home for his final hours.
The hospital granted their request, she wrote, but their father had “decided he wanted to leave sooner.”
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, only Frias and one of her sisters were allowed to be with their dad as he died. The other siblings had to wait and comfort one another in the parking lot.
“We waited for the priest to show up, but he didn’t. I had my holy water and rosary and we prayed. Still, no priest,” she wrote. “The nurse manager came and told us there was a mix-up with the priest and, of all nights, there was not priest on duty.”
The sisters asked if they could call their own priest in and were initially told no.
“I said to her, ‘Will you please ask.’ She did ask, and the answer was ‘yes,’” she wrote. “I am forever thankful to Compadre David Dominguez, who was able to rush to my dad’s bedside and pray.”
They left the hospital brokenhearted “yet grateful that he left peacefully with prayers and not alone.”
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