I'd heard on the news that things were getting bad in the hospitals. A third spike in COVID cases has hit us hard here in the lower mainland. I believed it, but now I get to see it.
I'm writing this while biding my time in a Lower Mainland emergency waiting room for a non-critical, non-life-threatening condition. I inhaled some harsh chemicals by accident and slightly damaged my airway. I've got a dry hack and no voice. Poison control told me to come in once the coughing refused to settle.
I probably need a prescription for an inhaler or something.
I've been here for 7 hours so far. And I blame no one. The elderly lady with the head wound has waited longer. One young guy is pretty sure he passed all his kidney stones while waiting and is ready to go home now.
Suspected COVID patients sit over to my right. They are supposed to be behind a screen, but there are too many. The hospital is beyond capacity. It's been crowded for hours. Only parents of sick kids can stay; other supportive relatives have to leave. Nurses are run off their feet.
Something brown and slick oozed out of a patient's shoe and across the floor. The trail followed him as he left the emergency room, his ankles swollen and inflamed. The fluid has been dragged around by shoes and wheelchairs.
The single patient washroom here has been wiped down once in the last six hours. I jumped on the chance and was the first one in after the clean.
I hack and cough while returning to my seat, and I get dirty looks from an older man hugging his catheter bag. I want to explain that I'm not contagious, but I can't talk.
I can't imagine how hard it would be to work here. And I know there are problems with funding and staffing that extend beyond the current pandemic. I'm just saying that the influx of patients is stressing a system that already needed help.
I'm also not writing this to judge or complain, but rather to write down a witness statement and add my own small touch of humanity to the numbers here in the lower mainland of BC:
Over 1000 new cases a day.
Stay home, stay safe, stay kind.
And love on our health care workers. No matter how short-tempered they may sound! ;) They are saving lives.
Thank you to all the staff working their butts off around here! And to the cleaning staff who I see running about constantly cleaning equipment and chairs. I’m sure they’ll get to that brown puddle as soon as they can. 😨😶
With love,
Charity
