ER doctor warns of rising cases and hospitalizations in Lethbridge area
By Tim Kalinowski on September 4, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com Chinook Regional Hospital emergency unit doctor Sean Wilde is warning Lethbridge area residents the hospital is seeing a worrying spike in COVID-19 diagnoses, and a recent ramp-up of admissions of those experiencing respiratory and other forms of distress related to COVID.“We are experiencing higher volumes of COVID patients and diagnoses at the hospital,” said Wilde, “including in the community and admissions to the hospital and the Intensive Care Unit. I just wanted to express a desire to make people aware that’s going on in case they haven’t been paying attention to the information.”
“Vaccination has been very effective in protecting people from getting severe disease,” he stressed. “There is enough COVID circulating in our community that most people are going to be exposed probably in the next few months. So it is important to make a choice whether you want to be exposed with or without vaccinations.”
Wilde took to social media earlier this week in an open post to the community about the concerning situation arising at the hospital as COVID cases spike.
“After some two months of closure,” Wilde writes, “our hospital has reopened the inpatient COVID unit as we are seeing a rapid increase in hospitalizations. They’re looking for more doctors to staff it. Not sure who they expect to find who isn’t already too busy.
“ICU is predominantly COVID patients again. Some local, some overflow from Medicine Hat’s full ICU, and some critically ill from the Cardston county outbreak.
“Medicine Hat and Lethbridge have the only ICU beds in the south zone. Calgary hospitals are beginning to receive overflow from Edmonton.
“As of this weekend there is a noticeable increase (a ‘parade’ at times) in visits to our ER for COVID diagnosis and known infections where ‘my breathing is getting worse’,” he continues. “We’re admitting unvaccinated people in respiratory distress of all ages (20 something was the youngest I admitted on the weekend).”
Wilde told The Herald on Thursday the hospital was so far managing the influx, but there is cause for concern.
“Currently we are managing,” he said. “We are not overwhelmed. It is busy, which is a normal thing in a hospital, but what we are seeing is a fairly quick uptick in how many patients we are admitting specifically for COVID-related issues. And the problem is if those numbers keep increasing and then in order to make space we have to eliminate other services or limit other care services.”
Wilde also encouraged local civic and provincial leaders to consider bringing in additional public health measures again to help the local medical system keep the numbers manageable and flatten the curve on transmission.
“In the past we have had a lot of public health measures enacted to try and prevent that from happening, and that doesn’t really look like that is going on this time,” he said. “So there is certainly a feeling of worry in the hospital that we don’t know if anything is being done to control this, and we don’t know how high it will get.”
Mayor Chris Spearman announced on Wednesday he would be bringing forth an Official Business Resolution to bring back masking measures for all indoor public spaces in City-owned facilities to be voted on at next week’s final council meeting of the term. On Friday, the province announced it would also be bringing in a province-wide mandatory masking law in all indoor public spaces effective Sept. 4.
Wilde said he felt such measures were absolutely necessary given the situation of the moment.
“One of things you quickly learn while working in an emergency department is you have to take the reality in front of you,” he said. “You just can’t wish for the way you would like things to be. You need to deal with the problem at hand. And I think right now it would be prudent through whatever means are available to encourage more people to be masked when they are indoors and when they are in large groups.”
In his social media post to the community, Wilde stresses this even more forcefully.
“Now is a good time to wear masks in public places,” he states, “and limit nonessential contact with others, particularly if you have vulnerable family members. Children remain at lower risk of severe acute illness if infected, but that is not ‘no risk.’
“When transmission ramps up in schools, I expect we will see more pediatric COVID admissions than anytime before in the pandemic, as this is what is occurring everywhere else with high delta (variant) transmission.”
Wilde said what he has noticed with many of the unvaccinated patients coming into the emergency room with severe symptoms associated with COVID is that not many of them are outright opposed to the vaccines, but had merely gotten complacent about the disease and had not taken the time to go get them done. Wilde said for anyone in that situation now is the time to book a vaccine appointment.
“I think part of that has maybe been the provincial messaging,” he states. ‘We are on the recovery. We’re post-pandemic now.’ And there hasn’t been a lot of information provided directly to the public to suggest otherwise. So I think many people thought it wasn’t really a big issue. I just want people to be aware that it’s still going on. There is still a risk to the healthcare system and to individuals. And it is important to proactively make that decision whether you are going to face this virus vaccinated or unvaccinated. You are making the choice you think is best because it is becoming inevitable you will encounter (COVID) one way or another.”
Wilde said it has been proven beyond all doubt that those who have been vaccinated and become infected later will largely avoid the most severe symptoms of COVID.
Wilde was asked if in his medical opinion he would recommend alternative treatments like horse dewormer, as some have suggested?
“No, I absolutely would not,” he stated definitively. “There have actually been studies looking at Agri-Mectin as well as all the other potential suggestions for COVID treatment that have come along during the pandemic. There have been robust, scientific reviews which have been done rapidly, and there is no question the vaccines are more effective and have a much lower side-effect profile than pursuing something like that.”
Wilde urged those who require testing for COVID-19 to call 811 and book an appointment with the community testing centre, and to avoid coming into the ER if possible.
“We would encourage people to do that, and just come to the emergency room if you are worried that you are experiencing trouble breathing, or having chest pain, or some other complication that you need medical attention for urgently,” he explained. Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
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