Alabama Physician On ICU Beds For Coronavirus Patients: “It’s Getting Tight”

As coronavirus cases increase in Alabama, health officials say there is a need for more intensive care unit beds. “You can [currently] get an ICU bed or an ICU setting, but it is getting tight,” Dr. David Thrasher, a critical care doctor at Montgomery Pulmonary Consultants, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday. “The numbers have dramatically increased.”

In a news conference Wednesday, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said the city’s health care system is “maxed” and if that if you need an ICU bed, “you are in trouble. Last weekend, my partner and I, ran on 140 patients over the weekend,” Thrasher said. “That’s twice the one we normally have. Tonight, our group is grinding on about 132 patients and 110 of those I believe are COVID-19 patients.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Alabama was one of 17 states that had registered an upward trend in average daily cases — a rise of at least 10% — over the previous seven days, according to an analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. “We have unfortunately lost too many patients, young in the 30s or even younger,” Thrasher said. “So, it affects everybody and that’s what everyone needs to realize. It’s a real problem and nobody is immune.”

Source: CNN

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