Kids sick with Covid are filling up children's hospitals in areas seeing spikes
“Absolutely household infections are the beginning of this pandemic, that is a major driving force in the spread of infections. We see it often within households, parents to children,” a pediatrician said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ng-children-s-hospitals-areas-seeing-n1276238
As
vaccination rates lag and the
new delta variant surges, Covid infection rates among kids have risen and children’s hospitals are seeing a spike in medical care needs among the young patients.
The Covid surge is also stacking upon an
unseasonable spike in respiratory illnesses among children typically seen only in winter. That has shrunk the bed space further in children's hospitals and expanded on the unrelenting demand on doctors and nurses.
“It is scary, especially for kids who don’t fully understand what’s going on. They’re air hungry, struggling for breath, and it’s just scary,” said Dr. Kelechi Iheagwara, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “You have the illness, the fear, they can’t breathe, they’re isolated — that’s hard for anyone to understand, but can you imagine what it’s like for a kid?”
Her hospital has treated Covid in children ages from 3-week-olds to 17-year-olds in recent weeks. Iheagawara said that for the past month, her unit has had to treat 25 or 26 patients in a space designed for 20. And things are getting worse.
Multiple doctors in the half-dozen children’s hospitals NBC News reached out to said they have seen children infected because a member of their household, often a parent, brings the coronavirus home. Oftentimes, it is because an adult in the home is unvaccinated.
“Absolutely, household infections are the beginning of this pandemic, that is a major driving force in the spread of infections. We see it often within households, parents to children,” said Dr. Jim Versalovic, the chief pathologist and interim chief pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. “We have certainly seen siblings — more than two at times — with an infection at the same time, so spread within households is certainly a very real phenomenon.”
The Covid-19 spike hit the Baton Rouge children's hospital in mid-July and brought its monthly total to 75 cases — the highest number of coronavirus hospitalizations during the entire pandemic. With 27 children admitted to the emergency room over the first four days of August, the hospital has already seen more child hospitalizations than it saw in the entire month of June.
Combined with the rise in out-of-season
virus infections this summer, the hospital has been at bed capacity for weeks and the number of Covid cases among kids is projected to grow for the next two to three months. It remains particularly concerning as children under 12 remain the most vulnerable to Covid since they are not yet able to receive the vaccinations.
“We’re also a trauma center, so we have to be available for kids that get in car accidents and things like that,” said Dr. Trey Dunbar, the president of Our Lady of the Lake Hospital. “My fear is that with our staffing crunch, if this surge continues, how do we keep caring for the kids that we need to have beds for?”
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