TEXAS, Odessa (BNc) – Follow-up information from Faye:
Tonight I comforted an ICU doctor agonizing over the COVID patients who weren’t savable.
He was feeling guilty that there was no time to assess the four patients on the floor who desperately needed the only available ICU bed because there were three ICU patients who had to be intubated and kept alive.
He was also worrying about how to write good documentation after a 14-hour shift – expecting it to take until 2 a.m. – but knowing his next shift starts at 7 a.m.
Tonight I watched a surgeon – who had been up all night as a volunteer in ICU (to help the ICU doctors) – tiredly reassure an ER doctor preparing to volunteer in ICU tonight, doing work he hasn’t done since he finished residency many years ago.
Tonight I saw nurses on the floor exhausted from caring for more patients than normal so that other nurses could go care for COVID patients.
Today my office had multiple calls telling us the operating rooms are being shut down except for cancer and emergencies because the nurses are being pulled to work with COVID patients.
Tonight I listened to a hospital administration report that there are more beds ready in our makeshift ICU, but there are no nurses to take care of the patients who need them.
Tonight my heart ached as I heard that 9 out of 10 ICU patients (and all patients who are intubated) are unvaccinated.
Tonight I fought down panic as I tried to figure out how to convince my family and friends and fellow West Texans that the risks of the vaccine are lower than the risks of COVID.
Tonight I’m asking you to think again about the vaccine if you haven’t already had it. Think about the doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists who are exhausted and overwhelmed. Please reconsider the vaccine.
Please ask your doctor if you have questions.
Thank you.


Thanks everyone for your comments. This is a topic that needs to be discussed. I am sorry that some have made personal attacks. Such are not helpful. Whether you agree with Faye’s appeal or not, it is made by a medical professional who is saddened by seeing people die from Covid-19 every day, and who sincerely wants suffering to be avoided. Comments will be closed for this item.

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