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Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
I can tell from reading the responses above that most who have taken time to post are naysayers regarding the gravity of the COVID problem in Florida and nearby. I guess I don’t know why, but that’s not worth discussing.
Yes, there are lots of statistics published by various sources, but not all are easily interpreted or current. But there are reliable anecdotal reports which are also available to each of us
I was personally told by two of my doctors last Thursday that as of the day before, no hospital within 75 miles of The Villages was accepting new patients for ANY reason unless they had a room vacated. They rattled off the names of all the hospitals that I was familiar with from Ocala south to north of Orlando.
They told me that the hospitals in Ocala were sending COVID patients home with a tank of oxygen and a mask, which has now resulted in a shortage of oxygen in the area.
I live nearby The Villages Regional Hospital and I can count the number of sirens I’ve heard going into the ER in the last couple of weeks on one hand. I drove by yesterday and the ER parking lot was more than half empty.
The hospitals have cancelled all but necessary surgeries or procedures of any kind, as have many doctor’s offices. The Villages Health offices were reported to have 26 COVID cases among their staff. My primary care doctor is only doing “tele-health” appointments for the time being.
The 250 doctor statewide Florida Cancer Specialists have cancelled all but required chemo and radiation treatments and mandated that all employees be vaccinated by next Monday as a requirement to work. One of my doctors told me that 4 of his patients died last week from COVID, all male, less than 40 years old, and all unvaccinated.
Is the reported COVID spike in Florida hitting close to home here in The Villages? Use the statistics, but also consider what you’re seeing among your own friends and neighbors.
Call your doctor and ask. That would be a better source of information than any opinion you read here. Then draw your own conclusions.
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Originally Posted by Byte1
That's just another normal day at the Villages Hospital.
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Originally Posted by dewilson58
Same at Ocala, it's not just TVH.
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This is no joke, it is a very real and serious situation. It’s an easy situation to ignore or label as fear mongering, UNTIL YOU ARE THE ONE THAT BECOMES SICK AND NEEDS A ROOM.
I recently became acutely ill and had a close brush with the grim reaper. I spent 12 hours in the Villages ER only to be mis-diagnosed and sent home because they had no beds/rooms. As I continued to get sicker at home, I refused to call 911, knowing I would get picked up and dumped off at the same incompetent and over stressed hospital with no open rooms. I quickly became too sick to drive and was convinced I was going to die at home (a week earlier I was an extremely healthy and active man for my age, who worked out daily). Fortunately, my wife (and guardian angel) canceled everything and rushed down to our home in the Villages to rescue me. She first brought me to the Ocala Regional Hospital, which also had no rooms and was a wast of the little valuable remaining time I had. She then decided we needed to get further away from the Villages in the hope of finding a hospital with an open ICU room. She took me to Gainesville and brought me to a stand alone ER affiliated with the North Florida Regional Medical Center. At that point I was so sick I don’t remember much, but my wife told me they quickly ran a bunch of tests, accessed me, and determined I needed an ICU bed ASAP. An ambulance brought me to the main NRFMC building where I checked into one of the three remaining ICU beds. After keeping me barley alive and running every imaginable test for four days, they finally figured out what was wrong with me. As it turned out, I was bitten by a tick up north before going to our Villages home. Lyme disease from the tick was the least of my problems, the tick also injected a nasty parasite into my bloodstream called Babesiosis. The closest thing in this world to Babesiosis is Malaria, which is a parasite that attacks and kills the hosts red blood cells. Once properly diagnose and treated, the very long and slow recovery began. If it wasn’t for my wonderful wife, and the NFRMC, I would have died.
The moral of the story is, don’t underestimate the severity of not having open hospital beds, it could easily kill you.