Cardiac patient dies after failing to get ICU bed in 43 US hospitals occupied by COVID patients

A 73-year-old man from Alabama, US, died due to cardiac arrest after he couldn’t secure an ICU bed in 43 hospitals across three states as they were already filled up by Covid patients.

Ray DeMonia, an antique dealer, died on September 1 in a Mississippi hospital, about 322 kilometres from his home because there were no cardiac ICU beds nearby, his daughter Raven DeMonia told The Washington Post.

DeMonia went to Cullman Regional Medical Center on August 23 because he was having heart problems, she said.

Raven said her mother got a call from the hospital staff about 12 hours after he was admitted, saying that the staff had called 43 hospitals and were unable to find a “specialized cardiac ICU bed.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Alabama has one of the highest rates of new cases, with 541 per 100,000 testing positive in the last week.

In DeMonia’s obituary, the family urged everyone to get vaccinated to prevent others from being denied facilities due to a lack of resources.

Also read | 5 US states nearly out of ICU beds as fresh surge of COVID-19 cases stretch hospitals

“In honour of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not, in an effort to free up resources for non-Covid related emergencies,” the obituary read.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the ICU capacity in Alabama has been at maximum in recent weeks, with COVID-19 patients occupying about half of the intensive care beds.

Dr Scott Harris, the head of the Alabama Department of Public Health, last week said the state was continuing to experience “a real crisis” with ICU bed capacity.

“The numbers aren’t great. But the numbers at least have not continued to go up,” he was quoted as saying by local media.

(With inputs from agencies)