By Dapo Falade, with agency report
The people and residents of the United States of America (USA) are in for another round of major health issues as the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic reached a new height in some states in the country.
While hospitals are reported filled and patients are fearful or unable to get non-emergency care, doctors and hospitals are also reportedly witnessing sharp declines in patients seeking routine medical care and screenings.
There is also a reported increase in cancer mortality rate as patients without COVID-19, either out of fear, confusion or because of difficulty in obtaining the care they need, have chosen to stay at home.
As reported by Reuters on Monday, the renewed increase in COVID-19 infections have led to a rise in the number of those who have delayed care for so long and are far sicker than they otherwise would be.
Hospitals mostly affected by the recent surge in COVID-19 infection cases were found in states, including Texas, Arizona, Florida and parts of California.
“I had one lady who had delayed for five days coming in with abdominal pain that was getting worse and worse. When she finally came in, she had a ruptured appendix,” said Dr Diana Fite, an emergency medicine practitioner in Houston.
Fite, who is the president of the Texas Medical Association, cared for a baby whose parents waited six days before bringing him in with a severe ear infection.
After the pandemic was declared a national emergency in March, many states banned non-essential medical procedures and the number of patients seeking care for other ailments took a nosedive, with hospitals and medical practices most hit hard financially.
Emergency department use dropped by 42 per cent during the first 10 weeks of the pandemic, despite a rise in patients presenting with symptoms of the coronavirus, data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention show.
In the same period, according to the report, patients seeking care for heart attacks dropped by 23 per cent and stroke care by 20 per cent.
As the initial outbreak leveled off in the weeks that followed, healthcare experts planned to handle primary care differently should infections rise again, making sure minor procedures like cancer screenings were still allowed and assuring patients that hospitals and clinics were safe.
Texas again banned many non-emergency procedures, though cancer surgeries are still allowed and a hospital in California’s San Joaquin Valley, for several days, admitted only COVID-19 patients.
Dr Debra Pat, an oncologist in Austin, said the result is a healthcare crisis in the making, adding that she expected mortality rates from cancer to skyrocket in the years after the pandemic because patients have delayed their care.
“They are scared to go in the hospital unless they absolutely have to. And even when the patients are willing, it is hard to get things done,” she said.
Patt recently treated a man who waited to come in for headaches and dizziness until he had lost 35 pounds and had a softball-sized tumor in his head.
Patt said screening mammograms were down by 90 in Austin, where she specialises in breast cancer and serves as executive vice president of Texas Oncology.
By implication, that means some tumors will be missed and women who develop aggressive cancers might not know about it until the disease is more advanced and more likely to be deadly.
“It is an impact we will see on cancer survival for years to come,” she said.
Dr David Fleeger, a colorectal surgeon in Austin and a past president of the Texas Medical Association, said he has had numerous patients cancel colonoscopies in recent days.
“The delays in colonoscopies that are occurring right now ultimately will lead to more cancers and more deaths,” he said.
Helen Knost, another patient of Dr Patt, had to put off surgery for breast cancer in early spring because it was considered non-emergency in Texas and barred at the time and she was treated instead with the medication Tamoxifen.
“It is very strange to know you have cancer and you are just hanging out with it, just in a holding pattern,” said Knost, who did ultimately undergo successful surgery.
In California, doctors at the 150-bed Adventist Lodi Memorial Hospital in the San Joaquin Valley breadbasket were determined that a second surge in coronavirus cases would not bring a repeat of the pandemic’s early days, when emergency room visits dropped in half.
Emergency medical technicians also reported a 45 per cent rise in the number of heart patients who died before they could be brought to the hospital.
Hospital CEO Daniel Wolcott led a campaign to inform the community that the medical center was open and safe, even speaking to people about it in the grocery store.
But with new COVID-19 cases swamping the hospital, sickening nearly 30 staff members and forcing it to divert non-coronavirus cases to other facilities for several days, Wolcott fears that patients with heart conditions and other illnesses will stay away.
“We won’t know for years how many people lost their lives or lost good years of their lives for fear of coronavirus,” he said.
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