When Omicron Isn’t So Mild

Hospitals at maximum capacity have also been dealing with nationwide shortages of basic supplies that are needed to care for patients with complicated conditions, including intravenous bags of saline solution, small syringes of saline solution and small plastic tubes to take blood samples.

Frontline nurses, already parceling out a few minutes an hour to each patient under their care, say juggling unfamiliar products or adjusting to workarounds makes their jobs even more fraught.

The caseloads have had a rippling effect, far more pronounced in this wave than in others. Severe staffing shortages at nursing homes and dialysis clinics have made it difficult to discharge patients from the hospital who were still positive for the coronavirus, said Dr. David Margolius, an internal medicine specialist at MetroHealth in Cleveland. Some facilities do not accept Covid patients, and others have been so short-staffed that there are no openings.

“With Covid, for Covid, it’s putting so much stress on the health care system because of the implications of having Covid for placement,” he said.

Other patients at high risk — including pregnant women — have also become seriously ill. Alex Chandler, 27, a teacher in Killeen, Texas, who was vaccinated and had received a booster shot, was diagnosed with Covid when she gave birth on Jan. 9, according to her mother, Jenny Clay. That week, Omicron made up 99.7 percent of the Covid cases in Texas and surrounding states, federal data show.

Initially her throat felt as if she had swallowed broken glass, and her chills were hard to shake. But her symptoms gave way to the consuming care of her firstborn child, Beau.

Five days after giving birth, Ms. Chandler sought follow-up care for her son, and staff members noticed that she was breathing heavily, Ms. Clay said. Her oxygen saturation read 76 percent, far lower than the typical 95 to 100 percent.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/health/omicron-chronic-illness.html