Montana hospital ICU reaches 150% capacity amid COVID surge

[TomCADem]

Source: CBS News

In Billings, Montana, emergency room doctor Jamiee Belsky can barely keep up with the surge of new COVID-19 patients. "So we are — we're getting short on beds," she said.

At Billings Clinic, the largest hospital in the state, the ICU is running at 150% capacity with younger and sicker patients admitted daily. The National Guard is on hand to help care for and screen new patients while hallways house the overflow.

"People need to get vaccinated because right now we're hurting," Belsky said.

Frank Miller, 59, was hospitalized with COVID-19 more than two weeks ago. The unvaccinated engineer spent more than a week on a ventilator.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/montana-hospital-icu-reaches-150-capacity-amid-covid-surge/ar-AAOYrSy?ocid=msedgntp

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This is just amazing given how wide open Montana is. I can understand places like NYC and LA where it is tough to socially distance, but in a place like Montana you aren't constantly crammed in together with people, which may be why many residents think vaccines and socially distancing are unneeded in those areas.

[Champp]

1. Take a bow, Republicans

This is your doing. The consequence of your lies. You own it, Republicans. And Americans will remember what you did.

[jpak]

2. Maybe they're just morans?

[Irish_Dem]

3. America's widespread stupidity is stunning.

[h2ebits]

4. Sadly, the lower the population. . . .

the smaller the hospitals become because they don't need the capacity under "normal" circumstances.

[2naSalit]

9. In my county, not a really remote one...

Has one hospital that normally has two ICU beds, for the whole county. And at least four million tourists pass through here each year. The trick is, don't get sick or injured in Montana, you will be ejected by the life flight.

This is why life flight patients usually end up going to another state, like Idaho which is full right now, or SLC. And that's when there isn't a pandemic. We now have military workers in most of the larger and secondary hospitals.

[2naSalit]

5. Today the news said that...

over 100 people died just last month, most deadly so far.

Just because it's a wide open state doesn't mean people don't cram together in cars and pu trucks and bars.

We have a rumpist state government, they don't really care how many die.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. I like the use of the word rump

it fits ... barebones truncated ... lousy ... ass like

Wonder if the term's been used in politics since Cromwell's time of the Rump Parliament

[ratchiweenie]

6. Our cities aren't huge but they are still cities with stadiums and schools and buses, etc. Not any

different than other cities except we are a Republican state now and we have a large number of covidiots.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Because the red mad hatters gobble up stuff like this:

ICU Nurse Blows The Lid Off The Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated Narrative
2021-09-06, · by SeekAndFind · 149 replies
Red Voice Media ^ | 09/05/2021 | Zach Heilman
Joe Biden calls it the Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.He says this even though none of the vaccines fully prevent anyone from catching COVID, spreading COVID or even dying from COVID.Cameraman: Vaccine injuries?ICU Nurse: Thirty three. Just this past week about three fully vaccinated individuals, disease in quads left and right, DVT pulmonary embolism. I mean on blood thinners and this has ever since they got back vaccinated. I had a 30 year old woman who started bleeding, basically hemorrhaging ever since she got injected, literally within the 48 hours. This poor woman is a mother of two. Like I said,...

1. It's their red bubble: "Red Voice Media"

2. Exaggeration in headlines taken as fact.

3. Facts unverifiable, but they don't care.

4. ... I have only read the excerpt above but you can bet on there being tons of nonsense.

5. Very active thread (149 replies)

They believe the vaccine is killing more people than Covid.

[2naSalit]

10. Some asshole told me...

A couple months ago, that he was glad I was wearing a mask because according to him I was making covid19 delta variant because I was vaxxed. That's some real pretzelogic there. Glad I was getting "take out" and didn't have to sit and listen to his tripe while trying to eat.

[sop]

11. Why do people who reject a cheap, effective vaccine, because they don't trust medical science,

then show up at hospitals after becoming deathly ill, demanding all manner of expensive miracle cures? One would think they'd have the courage of their convictions and just suffer at home, guzzling bleach, shooting up Lysol and taking dewormers.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Their favourite cartoonist Ben Garrison & wife have it and vow never to go to hospital

https://www.businessinsider.com/ben-garrison-pro-trump-anti-vaxx-cartoonist-has-covid-19-2021-9

The right-wing cartoonist Ben Garrison says he has a "rough" case of COVID-19 and is treating it with ivermectin and beet juice, according to Gizmodo.

Garrison, known for his cartoons strongly supportive of Donald Trump, told the outlet in an email Sunday that he and his wife had been sick for about two weeks with the coronavirus, which they believe they picked up in a restaurant.

...

He told Gizmodo he and his wife would "never" get vaccinated or go to the hospital for COVID-19 treatment, while repeating numerous false claims about both things.

Article has one of his cartoons, a very mild one.

[Initech]

13. They've been brainwashed by far right social media propaganda.

Which tells them to reject experts, science, facts, reason, and logic. Check out r/HermanCainAwards if you haven't already, there's tons of these stories out there.

[UpInArms]

14. rural peeps (for the most part) do not wear masks, do not socially distance when they are in group

settings, go to mass gatherings frequently (i.e. tractor pulls, ball games, church services, funerals, auctions, stores)

They think they are somehow "special" and entitled to not even consider what they are doing.

They go to bars and restaurants with no worries ....

my neighbor told me her son had "the covid and he took ivermectin and got over it in 6 weeks"

These peeps are a special kind of special ... my red rural county has a less than a 35% vaccination rate

smh

[Ford_Prefect]

15. Our Governor and Legislature don't believe in science, vaccines, masks or public health mandates

unless they apply to livestock.

[McKim]

16. I am an Angry Mom!

My daughter the doctor is working hard in a city in Montana taking care of people who have COVID but never got a vaccine. I am glad that the national guard is there, at least they could protect her from some nutcase relative who insists on intervectine and threatens medical staff. I worry that she might bring it home to our granddaughters! This is all unecessary!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. Health workers once saluted as heroes now get threats

Health workers once saluted as heroes now get threats

by HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and GRANT SCHULTE Associated Press Wednesday, September 29th 2021

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — More than a year after U.S. health care workers on the front lines against COVID-19 were saluted as heroes with nightly clapping from windows and balconies, some are being issued panic buttons in case of assault and ditching their scrubs before going out in public for fear of harassment.

Across the country, doctors and nurses are dealing with hostility, threats and violence from patients angry over safety rules designed to keep the scourge from spreading.

"A year ago, we're health care heroes and everybody's clapping for us," said Dr. Stu Coffman, a Dallas-based emergency room physician. "And now we're being in some areas harassed and disbelieved and ridiculed for what we're trying to do, which is just depressing and frustrating."

Cox Medical Center Branson in Missouri started giving panic buttons to up to 400 nurses and other employees after assaults per year tripled between 2019 and 2020 to 123, a spokeswoman said. One nurse had to get her shoulder X-rayed after an attack. ... Hospital spokeswoman Brandei Clifton said the pandemic has driven at least some of the increase. ... "So many nurses say, 'It's just part of the job,'" Clifton said. "It's not part of the job."

Some hospitals have limited the number of public entrances. In Idaho, nurses said they are scared to go to the grocery store unless they have changed out of their scrubs so they aren't accosted by angry residents. ... Doctors and nurses at a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, hospital have been accused of killing patients by grieving family members who don't believe COVID-19 is real, said hospital spokeswoman Caiti Bobbitt. Others have been the subject of hurtful rumors spread by people angry about the pandemic. ... "Our health care workers are almost feeling like Vietnam veterans, scared to go into the community after a shift," Bobbitt said.

{snip}

[mackdaddy]

18. I wonder how many attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally?

About 4 weeks ago, and Billings is only a 300 mile trip on your Harley.

No masks, No Vax, and 525 thousand people packed together in dive bars.

I am sure it is all just a coincidence....