California doctor says sometimes beds only open up when patients die
With the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations at an all-time high, medical facilities are having a hard time finding places to put new patients.
Doctors in Santa Clara, California, are treating some critically ill patients in the emergency room, as there's just no spots in intensive care units. "Often, the only time we can move someone is when a Covid patient dies," Dr. Marco Randazzo, an emergency room physician, said Thursday at a news conference.
Dr. Ahmad Kamal of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center said they are seeing conditions that were not normal. "We are clearly not out of the woods -- we are in the thick of the woods."
More than 21,000 Covid-19 patients are in hospital beds throughout the state, with about 4,500 of them in intensive care units.