PEORIA, Ill. — Local hospitals are struggling to keep up with COVID-19 patients.
Teri, of Creve Coeur, tells WMBD News, the day she was admitted, there were 400 COVID patients at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center.
She ended up back in the hospital a few days after having knee surgery.
Teri had not been vaccinated, and had contracted COVID pneumonia.
“I knew I had congestion and I was coughing a lot. One of the first stages for me was a really high fever, for three or four days, it got to 105 (degrees) at one point,” Teri said.
Several of Teri’s family members, who were fully vaccinated, also came down with COVID, but their symptoms were not as severe.
Already struggling with staffing issues before the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals, like OSF Saint Francis, are having to call on travelling nurses to help care for COVID patients.
“They become licensed in whatever state they need to be licensed in. And, because of them coming in and helping with that, I never was not checked on within two hours,” Teri said.
She added, “If I needed something, like there were times when my breath would get really short, it would be really frightening.”
Teri spent eight days at OSF Saint Francis, but never ended up in the ICU.
She said one of the worst parts of being in the hospital with COVID was not being able to have any visitors.
“You’re alone…and you don’t know what that’s like until you are alone…you can’t have your family in there with you. That’s really hard to come to grips with, because things can change so quickly,” Teri said.
Teri is now home, but still on oxygen 24/7. That’s something that she said could last weeks, or much longer. It’s really an unknown at this point.
Teri praised the doctors and nurses who took great care of her. She received a five-day monoclonal antibody treatment toward the end of her hospitalization that helped clear out her lungs.
Here’s the full interview with Teri.
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