In a press briefing Monday, Vidant Health President Brian Floyd said the pandemic is taking a toll on their team, because they know that the COVID-19 deaths and disabilities they’re seeing are largely preventable. Vidant Health is seeing record numbers of COVID-19 patients. The largest COVID-19 inpatient group at Vidant is now 25- to 49-year-olds, but pediatrician Dr. Matthew Ledoux said they are also regularly seeing children admitted to the intensive care unit.
“We’ve admitted an infant who was just born, got infected by a family member, and went on life support and almost needed to be put on heart-lung bypass. We have been incredibly lucky and grateful to not have lost a single child yet to COVID-19. But if the current trajectory continues, we will lose a child here in the east from COVID-19 or the complications of COVID-19."
Other providers in the briefing said they are doing all they can, but that staff are exhausted. They said taking care of the mix of COVID-19 patients and critical patients with other illnesses is a challenge. They also encouraged vaccines, social distancing and masks, so that Vidant doesn’t become overrun. On August 29, Vidant had 172 COVID-19 positive inpatients, 150 of which were unvaccinated and 45 were in the ICU.
