LAWTON, Okla. (KFDX/KJTL) — Two Texoma hospitals are being ravaged by COVID cases. Officials with United Regional and Comanche County hospitals say there are very few beds in the hospitals.
Officials say a spike in January was not as bad as the current one. That’s why they are putting things into motion if the situation gets even worse.
“We’re losing people that don’t need to be dying and I can’t stress how serious this situation is enough,” Comanche County Memorial Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Scott Michener said.
There are 225 beds in Comanche County Memorial Hospital. 61 are currently for COVID-19 patients. With COVID cases already high and expected to rise even higher in the county, hospital officials are getting prepared for the worst.
“Our waiting room is full. The unknown is what’s getting us. We’re just trying to prepare because we don’t know. We don’t have any beds and we keep absorbing more so we don’t know where we’re going. We’re just trying to prepare for the worst,” Michener said.
And among those preparations is a tent that is now up at the hospital.
“We can begin to use this as a waiting room and we’re going to potentially turn the current waiting room into treatment areas and that will give us more space for those holds. And we expect a huge spike within the next 48 hours,” Administrative Director of Quality and Patient Safety Heather Love said.
Love says there were 27 patients waiting for a bed in the emergency room on Tuesday with only 36 beds to hold them. With so many patients in the hospital, everyone is having to work the floors for the sake of the patients.
“We got nurses and respiratory therapists and doctors doing two and three times but we’re all human. There’s a breaking point. It’s not good, I didn’t think we’d be here in August or September that’s for sure,” Michener said.
Michener says 85 to 90 percent of current COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated. Which is why these officials urge everyone to get vaccinated.
“Our hospitals, our clinics, our nursing homes, we’re struggling to get through this. The biggest way or the best way that we can help get rid of this disease process, this variant, is for everybody to try to get vaccinated,” Love said.
“The pandemic’s not gonna go away, the coronavirus is here to stay. It’s gonna be here for years to come. I just can’t urge people enough how important it is to get vaccinated. It’s just so critically important,” Michener said.
Comanche County Memorial is offering third booster shots for those who need it. For more information click here.