THREAD: Friday Morning, @LouRaguse and I were granted access into the ICU at @RegionsHospital in St. Paul. What we saw was sobering. At the time, the hospital was at 98% capacity for surgical beds and 85% capacity in the ICU. @KARE11 
MORE: In many of the ICU’s isolation rooms — patients require the assistance of a ventilator to breathe. The sound of the machines echo an eerie chorus across the 6th floor of the hospital. @KARE11
MORE: When you walk by the doors of these rooms, one thing you notice is patient instructions and vitals written on the sliding glass doors in dry erase marker. Nurses left clear instructions not to shave this patient’s beard. @KARE11
MORE: These are the signs plastered on just about every doorway in the ICU reminding front line workers to follow the hospital’s strict COVID protocols. @KARE11
MORE: A physician checks in on 67 year old Kevin Roth of Webster, WI., inside a COVID recovery room. Roth tells us he started feeling symptoms back in late October. He says that he “got sick real slowly.” @KARE11
MORE: Nurses take a quick moment to chat outside one of the isolation rooms on the sixth floor. One nurse we spoke with tells us “the race has gone on far too long and we’re not even close to the finish line. @KARE11
MORE: Nurse Sonja Roback adjusts the oxygen flow for 63 year-old David Deffenbaugh of Pine City. Deffenbaugh is another patient on the road to recovery. When we spoke to him he had to take quite a few pauses just to catch his breath. @KARE11
We’ll have more from Behind the Battle Lines inside Regions coming up tonight at 10 on @KARE11 News.
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