South Florida hospital workers: exasperated by the unvaccinated
CINDY KRISCHER GOODMAN
August 24 at 6:00 AM ET
Each time a COVID patient leaves the intensive care unit at Memorial Hospital West, the bed fills quickly with another. An exhausted Lotta Siegel, nursing director of critical care, hooks the newcomer up to an oxygen device.
With patients gasping for air, the days are increasingly difficult to get through and Siegel’s frustration is mounting. “We thought this was behind us. When the vaccines came out, we saw a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“We have always taken care of every patient no matter what their background or beliefs,” Siegel said. “But that doesn’t change that it is difficult to wrap our arms around what’s happening now because we know we are fighting a pandemic of the unvaccinated. We know they had an opportunity to avoid ending up in our ICU.”
Exhaustion and exasperation can be heard in the voices of Florida’s hospital workers who only eight months ago saw the COVID vaccines as a victory, a sign that their communities could get through the pandemic. But in July, when another wave hit Florida hard and the unvaccinated began flooding in, these nurses and doctors found themselves treating more patients than ever before -- and often much sicker. By now, many are disheartened.
“Many times when I leave work, I can’t comprehend what I have seen that day,” Siegel said. “I think it makes it more emotionally exhausting, that it didn’t need to be this bad.”
On Monday, more than 17,000 Florida hospital beds were filled with COVID patients, nearly four times as many as in early July.
Florida hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients have suspended elective surgeries, put patient beds in conference rooms and cafeterias and given healthcare workers extra shifts. Critical care nurses are spending eight hours or more a day donned in full protective gear with only their eyes making contact with a flailing COVID patient. In between caring for patients, they tell family members how bad a toll COVID is taking on their loved ones who might have had a better outcome had they gotten a vaccine and worn a mask.
“As a whole, we are all exhausted,” said Dr. Jennifer Buczyner, the stroke director at Jupiter Medical Center. “We can’t sit by and watch this anymore.”
Doctors speak out
With frustration levels high, more than 70 doctors from various hospitals and private practices gathered in Palm Beach Gardens at 6 a.m. Monday, before and after work shifts, to urge the hesitant to get vaccinated. Their strong message for the community came just hours before the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people 16 and older.
Buczyner said she organized the gathering of doctors in northern Palm Beach County after recognizing that the situation is getting worse at a faster rate than any other point in the pandemic.
Doctors who spoke out Monday said they believe the time is now to counter false reports about the vaccines that have circulated widely and led people not to trust the science. They said hearing from doctors in the local community could be what it takes to stop people from ignoring the data and added that they can’t continue to care for patients at the levels they are now.
“It’s going to be a long Monday in the ER and I’m privileged to be trusted with your friends and families,” said Dr. Ethan Chapin, an emergency physician at Jupiter Medical Center. “But there will be a number of people I see today who shouldn’t be there in the first place if they had taken the simple advice to get vaccinated. I hope you trust us now when we tell you the vaccine is safe.”
Specialists who treat non-COVID patients said everyone is suffering because of those who chose not to get vaccinated.
Dr. David Lickstein, a reconstructive surgery specialist with Jupiter Medical Center, said hospitals and operating rooms have a limited amount of staff, resources and supplies. Because of the influx of COVID patients and limitations on resources, hospitals have put some surgeries on hold. People in pain who need back surgery or want cancer tumors removed have to wait because there isn’t an ICU bed available. “This affects all of us,” he said. “Wear a mask, get vaccinated, do your part.”
The mental toll
At Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Dr. Aharon Sareli said seeing the result of misinformation about vaccines makes his job treating critical patients emotionally taxing.
“I am dealing with families and patients that disproportionately don’t believe in vaccines,” he said. “They have made that choice and unfortunately paid the ultimate price, but that doesn’t make it better for anyone ... The most difficult part for me as a physician is that we have never faced this amount of loss of life for such a prolonged period of time. That is tough to deal with because now it’s a preventable loss of life.”
Siegel, who works with Sareli, said she struggles with the argument some make for why they didn’t get vaccinated. “I understand people have different beliefs but they will say ‘we don’t’ know what’s in it or what kind of reaction I’ll have.’ ”
“I look at my ICU patients that have six different medications going into them at the same time,” Siegel says. “Do they realize what each one is for and what the side effects can be? Do they understand that getting vaccinated is not only about not infecting yourself but also those around you so no one ends up in critical care? This is not the flu. This is not something that is going to go away by itself.”
For those who do recover from COVID, it may take weeks. For those who don’t, the emotional toll of delivering the information over the phone has become draining for hospital staffers.
“People will say we haven’t done everything to keep their loved one alive when there is nothing left in the world to do,” said Jennifer Pacheco, vice president of critical care at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. “It’s so hard when someone dies prematurely. It’s hard to get people to understand this young person contracted COVID and died from it. It’s even harder when you think that it could have been avoided if they had gotten vaccinated.”