Staff who work in the intensive care unit at Mercy Jefferson in Crystal City are worried about the recent rise in
COVID-19 cases and the increased number of younger patients being admitted to the hospital.
“I think the main thing about this wave of COVID is it is hitting a lot of younger people at a more rapid pace,” said ICU manager Tyson Davis, 33, of Sunset Hills, formerly of De Soto. “Initially, our first COVID population was elderly, between the 60s and 70s.”
Davis said now the average age for COVID-19 patients has been between 35 and 43.
Over the past two weeks, the Jefferson County Health Department reported COVID-19-related deaths for a woman in her 20s, a man in his 30s, and a man and woman in their 40s.
“Their decline is a lot faster,” Davis said. “When you’re used to an ICU of all 65 or older, that’s a lot of younger people in an ICU and not to mention the emotional toll it takes when you see pictures of their children who are all under the age of 10 up on the wall and their wives call nightly crying. It’s a little bit different when you’re talking about someone in that age range.”
Davis said the younger people he has been seeing in the ICU were healthy before contracting the virus.
“These people were walking and talking and going to softball games or playing with their kids on the weekend,” he said.
Davis said the majority of patients in his ICU have been unvaccinated.
“Compared to the vast quantities that we have in the hospital right now, there is a small population that is vaccinated and they don’t often end up in the ICU unless they’re already immunocompromised,” he said.
Between May 1 and Aug. 15, 92 percent of COVID-19 patients in any Mercy hospital were unvaccinated, according to a hospital spokesman.
A total of 4,095 COVID-19 patients were admitted to Mercy hospitals, which are in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, from May 1 to August 15 and only 329 of them were vaccinated, the spokesman said.
Before this current wave of
COVID-19 cases, Davis said the average ICU stay for COVID-19 patients was around three days, but with the Delta variant, those stays have been longer, Davis said.
“An average COVID patient in the ICU is closer to like 11 to 14 days,” he said. “These patients require just so much more resources and so much more time they really bog down the system in general, and not to mention the ICU.”
The ICU at Mercy Jefferson can accommodate 12 patients, he said.
“All of them currently here, they’re going to be here for a while and that’s the scary part,” Davis said.
Davis said he and many other ICU staff members thought the vaccine would be the “light at the end of the tunnel, but the end doesn’t appear near anytime soon.
“Now we’re continuing to experience it in a younger population and we’re seeing so much more,” he said. “We take pride in taking care of the people we love and live with here in Jefferson County. I think that is one of the main things that keep most of my people going and knowing that they’re caring for their loved ones. It is very taxing.”
Danielle Vishino, nurse and team leader for the ICU at Mercy Jefferson, said caring for younger COVID-19 patients is difficult.
“A lot of much younger patients are far more sick than our previous COVID experiences,” she said.
Vishino, 35, of St. Louis County said one patient she recently cared for had his ICU room wall covered in photos of his children.
“That brings it down to earth for you when you’re in there caring for him,” she said.
Davis said he saw information online about another hospital writing inspiring messages on staff bathroom mirrors, so he followed suit and wrote on one at Mercy Jefferson that said, “You’re going to tell your kids someday that you helped save the world.”
The community is still sending staff members meals and some thank-you messages, Davis said.
“But it is few and far between from what we saw earlier,” he said. “We are still here to do what we do. The accolade is serving people and knowing we get to send people home and care for them in their worst time.”
Both Davis and Vishino said they are fully vaccinated and encourage others to get COVID-19 vaccinations.
“While we’re still seeing patients who have been vaccinated, they’re less critically ill than the ones who have not been,” Vishino said.
Davis said those who get vaccinated help themselves and others.
“If you’re unable or unwilling to get the vaccine and that is a choice you’re going to personally make, which is not recommended by me, I would ask that you please wear a mask and please use the hand hygiene the best you can,” Davis said. “In the end, we’re here to care for you and we will always be here. So please, when you have a chance, help yourself out and help the community in any way you can to prevent this.”