By Shannon Stapleton

MISSION VIEJO (Calif.) – Alexandria Scott rests in her hand at emergency room reception, hoping that all is well after the COVID-19 Omicron variant swept into the hospital.

As patients waited for beds, the 26-yearold techniec said “It has been crazy.” We have experienced wait times of literally 24 hours, wait times of 18 hours, and people just coming in to get beds.

Orange County is located in southern California and has one the highest COVID-19 hospitalizations rates. The county’s cases peaked two weeks back.

Omicron struck Providence Mission like other hospitals in the nation, causing record-breaking numbers of people to visit its emergency room. Doctors say that although this variant is less dangerous, it still causes major lung damage to the unvaccinated.

This 504-bed hospital was able to triage patients to modern surge wards or intensive care units, which were able to grow and contract in accordance with COVID-19 waves. It is one of the best hospitals in the nation.

The staff, who are exhausted by resignations and sickness, has taken a lot of abuse. According to about a dozen nurses and doctors who spoke with Reuters, many staff have been afflicted by COVID-19 two times, had to deal with hundreds of deaths from coronavirus, and have faced tense interactions in the county well-known for its conservatism.

Jim Keany, an emergency room physician, said that while they responded to the pandemic, “it was overwhelming and nearly broke us all.” Keany stated that many of his coworkers are tired, don’t see the end in sight, and have given up on fighting the pandemic.

Keany stated that emergency room patients have stagnated at an “unsustainably large level”, leaving many people waiting in corridors on gurneys.

Amy Langdale is an emergency room trauma nurse. She said that “I believe a lot” of people feel like they are numb. It’s not depression but there’s definitely an elevated level of burnout.

Dr. Robert Goldberg at Providence Mission says that around 8/10 patients who are in intensive care with ventilators have not been vaccinated.

Nationally, deaths, which tend to lag infection rates, have been rising and have averaged over 2,500 a day, double the level seen before the Omicron surge, but below the peak of 3,300 a day during the Delta surge in January 2021, according to a Reuters tally https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/united-states. Hospitalizations and cases continue to decline rapidly.

In Providence Mission, some patients spend their last few weeks on ventilators which pump oxygen through damaged lungs.

One middle-aged man, struggling to breathe in the unit decided to use a ventilator. The children looked over him with their arms crossed, the son on his back with his arm, and his daughter on his shoulders, pressing down on his sides, praying that he would get better.

Doctor, how do you feel about this decision? As he lay down, the man asked him to let his breath in.

Dr. Tauseef Qureshi said, “I believe that if your desire to fight as hard and as much as possible, then you made the right choice.” He unplugged patient’s cell phone in order to free up space for ventilator.

Patients’ family requested that no names of loved ones be used.

A picture outside showed the nurses volunteering to be part of the unit in 2020, when most medics were afraid to go there. Danielle Shaw is one of them.

I call it Russian Roulette. Shaw stated that you could be free from all risk factors but still become very sick. She has witnessed coronaviruses kill both young and old, and she believes it is Russian roulette.

Goldberg, a physician in critical care pulmonary medicine, stated that there is one constant: the high survival rates of vaccine-vaccinated patients.

When he tells patients that all is being done for them, he finds it hard to deal with the “politicized”, he feels it’s difficult.

Goldberg explained that seeing colleagues suffer and become sick is frustrating and challenging.

Orange County, once a Republican stronghold, is now dominated by Democrats. They hold five of the seven U.S. Congressional districts.

Keany, an emergency room physician, is grateful that 25% of patients with COVID-19 are now in good health, as opposed to well over 50% a few weeks back.

Scott, sitting at the ER’s frontline said that she was tired and knows more about patients.

“I love my job, and I chose to stay here,” stated the “tech,” who had never seen COVID-19 before she started at Providence Mission in 2012.