COVID-19 surge fills OHSU's ICU units
OHSU has four intensive care units, including a 16-bed medical ICU that has been converted into a unit dedicated to COVID-19 patients. All four ICUs are completely full, so some patients who need intensive care have been moved to other areas of the hospital.
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COVID-19 cases are surging across Oregon, and many hospitals are filled to capacity. At Oregon Health and Science University, Karla Mayorga, a registered nurse, tends to a patient in the intensive care unit in Portland on Aug. 19, 2021. Every person on this unit is critically ill with COVID-19.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Nurses work together to turn a patient over. Patients must be turned and repositioned a minimum of every two hours.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Statewide there are over 230 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care--the highest number since the pandemic began.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Emily Williams, a registered nurse, disinfects her face shield after being in a patient room.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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OHSU staff members grab a quick hug in the hallway of the ICU. They say that camaraderie and a sense of public service is what keeps them going.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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COVID-19 patients require a lot of intensive care and monitoring. Patients must be turned and repositioned a minimum of every two hours.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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The most critical patients are placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, which removes blood from the patient, infuses it with oxygen, right, and the oxygen-rich blood is recirculated to the patient’s body.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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There is no cure for COVID-19. Health care workers work to keep patients alive long enough for the infection to subside and their body can begin to recover.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Staff prepare to perform a surgical procedure in the ICU.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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“It’s devastating, and really heartbreaking knowing people are fighting for their lives and it could have been prevented,” says Erin Boni, a charge nurse, center.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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About one of every three intensive care unit hospital patients has COVID-19 in Oregon. That’s 232 people statewide.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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A nurse dons PPE before she enters the room of a COVID-19 patient. Most of the patients in this ICU unit are between 20-50 years old, with a single patient in their seventies.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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A medical team reviews a patient's X-rays. All but one of the patients in the ICU was unvaccinated.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Staff prepare to perform a surgical procedure on the ICU.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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There is effectively one nurse per patient as this type of care is very intensive.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Doctors and nurses use all the tools at their disposal to try to save each life — a demanding effort that often requires one nurse per patient.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Staff prepare to perform a surgical procedure in the ICU.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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A patient is rolled onto their stomach, which helps the back of the lungs open up more. And pretty early on, there’s evidence that COVID-19 patients are less likely to die if they’re put on their stomachs periodically.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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The reality of the ICU is that a lot of these patients don’t make it, and a big part of being an ICU nurse is facing those deaths sometimes when no one else can be there.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Every bed on this intensive care unit at Oregon Health and Science University is critically ill with COVID-19.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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"No one ever thinks they're going to end up in the ICU," says Sarah “Mo” Mohkami, a registered nurse at OHSU.
Hanin Najjar / OPB
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Nurses and medical staff say that one of the hardest parts of this whole experience for them is caring for people suffering and dying of a disease that is preventable with a vaccine.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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OHSU is preparing to accept more COVID-19 cases next week. Nurses may be assigned more patients to care for, or people may be put in parts of the hospital that aren’t normally used for ICU patients.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
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Julie Kleese cries after sharing her experiences as an ICU nurse at OHSU Hospital in Portland on Aug. 18, 2021.
Hanin Najjar / OPB
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Julie Kleese, a registered nurse, walks out of the doors of the ICU at OHSU Hospital in Portland on Aug. 18, 2021.
Hanin Najjar / OPB
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"We just need more people to get vaccinated," says Kristen Roach, a registered nurse. She says it feels like they never had time to recover emotionally from the surge in the winter. And now it’s happening all over again.
Hanin Najjar / OPB
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Amanda Bryant, a registered nurse, tends to a patient.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB