MIDLAND, Texas — Frontline workers are our community’s heroes. They have been battling COVID-19 since this pandemic began back in March.
Right now, the battle is harder than it has ever been in the Permian Basin.
Hospitalization rates are at an all-time high and there are more COVID patients in critical care than ever before.
As of Sunday, COVID-19 patients make up about 34% of the hospital's census. The COVID-19 ward's capacity is almost full at 97%.
For the first time, an intensive care unit nurse is giving NewsWest 9 a first-hand account of what it has been like fighting on the front line.
It is hard for these nurses and doctors to keep up with demand; at the time of this report, 97 COVID-19 patients were being treated at Midland Memorial Hospital.
There are not enough ICU beds and staff to take care of everyone who needs it.
That is why the hospital has called on the state for help, more than 100 FEMA nurses are coming to offer some relief to our local workers.
Who is worth saving? Who is not going to make it? Who is getting the one bed in the ICU? Who is going to have to wait in the ER for a few days?
These questions are common for doctors and nurses these days. Every decision is tough and has a consequence of life or death.
"There's no room," Rosamond Garcia, ICU nurse at MMH, said. "It's not just about the rooms...it’s not about the supplies, which we are short on or the ventilators which we do not have enough of...those things can all be ordered and manufactured."
Rosamond said the issue is not having the skilled healthcare workers needed to manage patients.
Garcia's worked with the sickest of patients the past year a half. She has seen a lot, but she has never seen anything like this.
Managing COVID patients in her area means the families of her patients do not get to say goodbye in the way they deserve.
“Something that has weighed on me the most is that I have had to seat in with an iPad, gound up, while my patient is with their families saying their goodbyes," Garcia said. "I've had to sit in on these private conversations and I have lost count of the patients we have lost."
Garcia says losing a patient to COVID is different because the families do not get to say their goodbyes in person.
"It's something different, saying goodbyes on a screen," Garcia said. "Something different saying goodbyes all gound up where you can't even hold the patient's hand as they pass away."
She knows this virus and the damage it can do in an intimate way, a way no one should.
Her message to you?
“Until it comes and you can see it, it’s hard to believe," Garcia said. "I would urge people to listen to those who are seeing this with their own eyes to take the warning. We see it, we’re here and we’re right next door to you. Help us help you.”
Garcia tells NewsWest 9 nurses, like her our proud of their boss, Kit Bredimus, for going to bat for them and insisting that the mayor and city council enforce a mask mandate.
Nov. 17, Midland's mayor, Patrick Payton said he was against enforcing a mask mandate.
Nov. 19, Mayor Payton insisted on putting the mask mandate on the city council’s agenda.
Payton put out a statement on Facebook Saturday saying in part:
“It would be wrong to assume that anyone knows how council members and the mayor will vote on this matter. But it would not be wrong to conclude that rather than act like a king or dictator I desire the elected body of this city to debate and decide on such a critical matter.”