Thread by @Cleavon_MD

Gov. John Bel Edwards reissues indoor mask mandate for Louisiana. More than 2,000 infections today involve children. "Let's rid ourselves of the notion, right now, that kids can't get COVID. We can't send children back into school unvaccinated & unmasked." theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…

As confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to surge in Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards reinstituted an indoor mask mandate on Monday requiring residents to wear face coverings in schools, churches, businesses and any other public spaces.

Recall 2 weeks ago

https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1416099503988424719?s=20

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards: 'This...is a mandate for everyone five and older in Louisiana. It's worth noting however that the CDC and LDH both strongly recommended that children age 2 to 4 also wear masks"

Dr. Mark Kline Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans: "This delta variant is every infectious disease specialist's worst nightmare.. There was a myth.. that children were somehow immune... It has become very clear that children are heavily impacted"

Dr. Mark Kline Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans: "We have not had an empty bed in any of our ICUs for weeks. We avoided going on diversion b/c of the responsibility we feel to take care of every child who needs us" but COVID is straining hospital resources

Dr. Mark Kline Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans: "The number of healthcare staff out ill with COVID has increased on a daily basis. STAFFING is rate-limiting. Not the number of beds, equipment & ventilators"

Dr. Mark Kline Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans dispels the myth that only children with pre-existing conditions are getting sick: "Half the children we are seeing with COVID were perfectly healthy"

Dr. Kline Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans: "In short, we've learned the delta variant is a whole different animal from what we've dealt with in the past.. low rates of vaccination in LA means we're very susceptible to a truly devastating surge at this time"

Dr. Kline Physician-in-Chief at Children's Hospital New Orleans: "Standing next to @LouisianaGov, I felt like I was thrown a LIFELINE. It was very emotional. We've all been DREADING the opening of schools" b/c that will be a catalyst for more cases, suffering & potentially deaths

Dr. Phyllis L. Mason Chief Medical Officer at Natchitoches: We don't have capacity to take care of COVID patients & other pts. We're holding patients in the ER up to 4 days. Other hospitals are at capacity so we can't transfer. This has created a 🚨PUBLIC patient SAFETY issue

Dr. Phyllis L. Mason Chief Medical Officer at Natchitoches Regional Medical Center: This surge is like a boxing match. This opponent is stronger, bigger, better & smarter than us. It's gonna take a 1-2 punch to knock this opponent down. It's gonna take the vaccine and masking

Dr. Phyllis L. Mason Chief Medical Officer at Natchitoches Regional Medical Center: "If you're not going to trust the science and get a vaccine, RESPECT THE VIRUS and wear a mask"

Dr. Catherine O'Neal CMO at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge: "2 wks ago we stood here w/ 36 pts in the hospital, today we have 155, which is our max from 2020. We are the largest hospital in the state; almost 800 beds. No one diagnosis should take up 1/4 of your hospital"

Dr. Catherine O'Neal CMO at Our Lady of the Lake: There were 23 patients on the board waiting for a transfer to our hospital for an ICU bed. 23 ppl sitting in an ER somewhere; many are not attached to a hospital at all. They will stay in that ER b/c there are 🚨NO MORE BEDS LEFT

Dr. Catherine O'Neal CMO at Our Lady of the Lake: When you come inside our walls [of the hospital], it is quite obvious to you that these are the DARKEST DAYS of this pandemic. We are NO LONGER giving adequate care to patients

Dr. Catherine O'Neal CMO at Our Lady of the Lake: When your family members get into an accident, they're not coming to a trauma center, b/c there are 🚨NO MORE BEDs. We have 67 empty beds in our hospital b/c we CANNOT FIND any staff b/c so many staff are out with COVID19.

Dr. Catherine O'Neal Chief Medical Officer at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge: We are OUT OF WAYS to open beds. We need YOU to open our beds for us by getting VACCINATED, which will help us open beds in several weeks, AND by wearing MASKS.

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System: We have 89 patients with COVID19 in our small hospital; 13 patients in the ED waiting for a bed; 10 were +COVID. We've already opened a Surg ICU. We had to DISCONTINUE elective surgeries to turn our recovery room into a 3rd ICU.

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System: We're asking for HELP for staffing, because we have 🚨62 employees out with Covid right now. We have beds, BUT we don't have PEOPLE to STAFF them. Right now 50% of our patients are COVID positive inside our facility

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System: We are the level 2 Trauma Center for region 9, so we're worried what happens when a trauma comes in. Even though we're on DIVERSION.. we had over 20 boarders in the ER and I had a waiting room of 80 patients waiting to come in.

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System: Our staff is DEMORALIZED b/c they truly believe this surge was preventable if we had all done our part with vaccinations and masking. Please wear a mask & help us

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System: This morning we had a 24 y.o. die of COVID, unvaccinated. In the last 2 weeks, we've had 14 deaths. We had a counselor coming to help our staff talk about what they're seeing, but the counselor's team had COVID & couldn't come

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System: When we're doing elective surgery, we have a core group of doctors trying to decide who gets to have surgery and who doesn't, because that operational room staff is now staffing our ICUs because we CAN'T FIND NURSES.

Michele Sutton, FACH, CEO North Oaks Health System discusses how elective surgeries are chosen during the pandemic. Last week they had to tell a patient, "we CAN'T fix your BRAIN ANEURYSM tomorrow like we hoped b/c we DON'T have a critical care BED to put you in after surgery"

Dr. Trey Dunbar, neonatologist & Pres. of Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health is seeing a 5-6 fold increase in +COVID children in the ER. 50% of admissions need ICU for breathing support, including oxygen & ventilators. Children do die from COVID

An aortic dissection is a medical emergency in which the inner layer of the large blood vessel branching off the heart (aorta) tears.

Dr. Catherine O'Neal is the CMO at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge Louisiana. They had ZERO beds due to COVID & couldn't treat a life-threatening aortic dissection. As a result, an ambulance raced the patient 5 hours to Houston, Texas for surgery.

🚨Amid dire hospital staff shortages due to COVID, Louisiana requests:
-978 ICU & ER nurses
-184 Respiratory Therapists
-158 Physicians
-165 Licensed Practical nurses
-41 Nurse Practitioners
-34 Nursing assistants
-34 Pharmacists
-110 Other providers theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/ne…