Clayton nurse worried about hospitals in the Miami Valley after working in Covid hot spots out of state

CLAYTON — A nurse who worked in hospitals in COVID-19 hot spot cities is worried about the Miami Valley.

Staci Hedke of Clayton is an out-patient nurse for Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton.

In April she worked in a New York City hospital.

“I had gotten there kind of partway through the crisis, so they kind of already had it slightly under control,” Hedke said.

However, that was not the case in Texas. She worked in Brownsville, Texas in July and San Antonio, Texas in August.

“Brownsville was definitely the hardest trip, so I kind of saw the brunt of it because it all was kind of just getting out of hand,” Hedke said.

She saw first hand what it was like to work in an overwhelmed hospital.

“I saw a lot, lot more patients die there,” Hedke said.

Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Ohio hit a record number of new hospitalizations in 24 hours with 216.

Dr. Andy Thomas, the Chief Clinical Officer for Wexner Medical Center, said right now the situation in Ohio hospitals is ok, but he is concerned for the future.

“At some point, if the numbers just continue to rise and rise, we’ll run into some difficult decisions to make,” Thomas said.

This is something Hedke does not want to see happen in her home state.

“You’re dealing with patients that are waiting on a room, and you’re dealing with new patients coming in, and you’re trying to get other patients out,” Hedke said. “And then you deal with supplies that are short and you’re trying to manage with what you have and that’s kind of the worst part. You can’t get patients out quick enough.”

Hedke said she does not have any more trips planned, but said that could change.

Cox Media Group