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Vera Middleton decided against getting vaccinated. Then everyone in her home caught Covid.
Kentucky hospital pushed to its limits as lawmakers extend state of emergency due to Covid-19 surge
By Amir Vera, Miguel Marquez and Bonney Kapp, CNN
Updated 10:08 AM ET, Thu September 9, 2021
(CNN)Vera Middleton wishes she had gotten the Covid-19 vaccine.
The 66-year-old great-grandmother from Olive Hill, Kentucky, said she and her husband discussed the vaccine, but kept putting it off and ultimately decided against it. She couldn't explain why.
Middleton spoke with CNN on Wednesday as she received a high flow of oxygen, saying she believes she got Covid-19 from her granddaughter who got sick. The virus then spread to everyone in her home.
Vera Middleton speaks with CNN at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Kentucky.
Middleton is doing better now, and is now encouraging her family -- along with others -- to get a shot. She cried speaking with CNN Wednesday, explaining that she thought she would die if she had to be put on a ventilator. Through tears, she also thanked the medical staff profusely and explained how supportive her church was during her time of need.
"With the grace of God, he is who brought me here. God has brought me where I am right now, and I praise him," she said in her hospital bed through tears, adding that she hopes the message people get from her story is not to get the vaccine, but to know "there's a God, and without him I would not be here today."
Sentiments like Middleton's are common in Appalachia -- a region that runs from southern New York to northern Alabama and Georgia -- where many people either do not believe in or are hesitant to get vaccinated, according to medical professionals who spoke to CNN.
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Because of this hesitancy, Covid-19 has run rampant in Kentucky, where nearly all of the state's 120 counties are in the "red" Covid-19 zone and hospitals on the brink of being overwhelmed, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.
As of Wednesday, about 49.5% of the state's population is fully vaccinated, according to a CNN data analysis.
One hospital is 130% above capacity
One such hospital, St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, about 65 miles east of Lexington, is one of the hardest-hit due to the influx of Covid-19 patients. It's the largest health care facility serving 11 counties in rural northeastern Kentucky and is currently at 130% above capacity, according to St. Claire Health Care CEO Donald Lloyd.
"I think this is a surge of fear now and these people are afraid of a vaccine that could save their lives -- and that's why they're in the hospital now," said Dr. William Melah, the chief medical officer for St. Claire Health Care.
About 85% to 88% of patients are unvaccinated, Melah said.
"It's like we're at a war with this virus," said Courtney Hollingsworth, a Covid-19 ICU nurse at St. Claire. "We're not at war with each other whether, you know, your beliefs and those things, it's truly a war with this virus."
St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Kentucky, is currently 130% above capacity.
The hospital had to close three operating rooms to expand ICU bed space, Beshear said.
As a result, it's become an issue for regular patients who want to come for emergency care, Melah said. Some have to wait a possible 24 hours for care or until someone gets better or dies, he said.
The governor said he has deployed a nurse strike team to St. Claire along with a couple of dozen members of the National Guard to assist with the influx of patients, but staff say that may not be enough.
"We could take double the number of clinicians that are here," Lloyd said.
The surge is also spirit-crushing for the hospital staff.
"It's defeating to put another person on the ventilator," said Joelle Craft, a Covid-19 ICU nurse. "It's defeating to put another person in prone positioning or paralyzing them or watching them get more test tubes. It's defeating to watch health care providers that I care about or myself stand at the bedside when someone dies alone. It's also defeating to watch somebody else get put in a body bag," she said.
Dr. Cory Yoder, a family medicine doctor at St. Claire, said she's had to get a couple of nurses out of the hallway and into a room alone because they broke down into tears over their patients.
"They just feel like there's no hope and that's not our ICU nurses," Yoder told CNN.
State of emergency extended to January 2022
Kentucky currently has more than 600,000 Covid-19 cases and nearly 8,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to data by Johns Hopkins University. Beshear said the state had 30,000 cases last week, the highest number ever in one week. From Saturday to Tuesday, 13,005 positive Covid-19 cases and 60 new deaths were reported, of which, eight were under the age of 50.
As a result of the spike, Kentucky legislators voted Tuesday to extend the state of emergency, which was due to expire Friday, to January 15, 2022.
The surge in cases illustrates that big, urban hospitals aren't the only ones being bombarded by patients, Beshear said. "It's regional hospitals that typically don't treat incredibly sick patients who are filled with those sick patients," he said.
Asked whether doctors and hospitals were getting to the point of rationing care, the governor said the state is still able to move patients from one hospital to another.
"But we are right at, or quickly approaching, that point," he said.
CNN's Artemis Moshtaghian, Kristina Sgueglia, Liam Reilly, Mirna Alsharif and Kiely Westhoff contributed to this report.
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