The City of Fairhope has had more than forty employees hit by COVID. That includes people who are sick, who tested positive, or who were exposed to the virus since July. Mayor Sherry Sullivan says essential employees are calling in sick at an alarming rate.
‘When you have specific employees who are trained in specific ways like linemen or wastewater plant treatment operators, it's unnerving when you take out four and five people in those departments. You legally have to have those people to work your systems,” said the Mayor.
Mayor Sullivan says much of her time is now spent on COVID issues and juggling staff to help fill in the gaps and keep services running.
“When you don't have them, and you see them going out at an alarming rate, it makes you worry about providing those services that as a city you have to provide and being able to maintain them to the level that our citizens expect,” Sullivan recalls.
Missing workers are just one issue. Sullivan also worries about what happens when the medical bills start piling up.
“We're self-insured, so we've had two employees who have been hospitalized. One of them is on his 17th today in the hospital. That bill is probably way in excess of $100,000. We're self-insured so that comes out of our pockets,” said the Mayor.
On top of COVID-19 and the contagious Delta variant, hurricane season is here. The Mayor is waiting to see what else might happen to put a strain on the healthcare system.
“God forbid we had a major accident with a school bus or something like that. We do not have the capacity here locally to take care of those folks right now,” thought Mayor Sullivan.
Sullivan’s not the only one with stuff to worry about...
“That theory about if a butterfly flaps its wings on the other side of the world, does that end up being a hurricane in the Gulf? That's what this is like,” contends Donna Nolte.
She’s the director of nursing and support services at Thomas Hospital and shares Sullivan’s concerns. Hers focuses more on the unvaccinated. During COVID, two of her biggest jobs are now running the monoclonal antibody infusions clinic and scheduling nurses. Providing enough of both is difficult right now. Nolte says the decision not to vaccinate is affecting the health of others in the community.
“And, I’m cool. You don’t want to get a vaccine? That's your choice. So, when you look at how one person who made that choice took up the bed and then somebody who needed something, didn't get it. They decided not to go to the ER because it was so busy. And, I'm sure that there were people who were no longer with us because they chose not to come to the ER.
This surge in COVID patients means that elective surgeries have been canceled at Thomas Hospital.
“It's called elective surgery, but they're all medically necessary,” said Mechelle Ollinger, director of surgical services. She says her staff has been redeployed to help coronavirus cases, that means other types of care get crowded out.
“It's delaying them from getting their total joints done or back surgeries,” Ollinger contends. “Things that aren't emergent aren't going to cause any kind of detriment to their healthcare if they wait a little while. But eventually, if you continue to push those off, then that story does change.”
“The best word is the relentlessness of it,” said Wendy Ledlow. She’s a pulmonary critical care nurse practitioner at Thomas hospital. Ledlow cares for the sickest of the sick. She helps keep the ICU running and manages hospital patients. She says seeing so many deaths from COVID is hard on the doctors and nurses, and it’s like a conveyor belt.
“There’s no ‘better.’ Oh well, that person passed so the next person gets the bed. And, it’s that quick. You’re not getting a room…the patient passes and they take the body. It's how quick is that room going to be ready? This patient’s got to come over here. And, it's just like that. There's no lull,” Ledlow observes. “There's no maybe we'll put somebody in that bed, maybe we won't. Right now you can guarantee for every ICU bed that's cleared through death, or I would love to say through healing, there's somebody waiting to take it.”
Ledlow said the hospital saw about 26 deaths during the previous two weeks. She keeps a list of all of them as a reminder of who the community is losing to COVID.
“I can remove those patients manually if I like, but I haven't,” said Ledlow. “And I haven't just as a reminder of wow, just to keep me grounded. I don’t need a list to do that. I don’t removed those. It’ll say ‘deceased,’ when they passed and I keep them on there. I think a little bit of me keeps that on there as a memorial to them. I took care of that patient and this is what happened. No, they weren't vaccinated. Yes, they were scared. It's been a lot. It's been a lot. If we escaped a day without at least a death, then we’ve had a good day.”
Doctors and nurses say COVID isn't going away anytime soon and new variants might follow Delta. But some Fairhope residents are getting the message. Local pharmacies and grocery stores say the demand for vaccines has jumped the last few weeks and customers are wearing masks indoors again.
Editor's Note—- APR Gulf coast correspondent Lynn Oldshue helped APR win its 4th national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. She contributed content for our documentary on the 10th anniversary of the BP Gulf Oil spill. You can click below to listen.
