‘Overwhelming.’ Tri-Cities ICU nurse is seeing very few COVID victories

Seeing so many deaths and severely ill COVID-19 patients is getting tougher, says Nichole Aldaas, an intensive care unit nurse at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland.

Tri-Cities area hospitals were treating 118 patients for COVID on Friday, a new record high for the pandemic.

And the Benton Franklin Health District reported 11 more COVID deaths, the youngest a woman in her 40s.

The 30 deaths announced in September so far are equal to the number of deaths announced in July and August combined.

“It’s hard,” said Aldaas, in a video recorded recently by Kadlec that gives a glimpse inside the largest ICU in the Tri-Cities.

“We have had a lot of deaths in the unit recently, a lot of very ill patients,” she said. “It’s getting harder knowing that there are things people could do to stop from getting COVID.”

The emotional moments for her are the calls made daily, if not more often, to update patient families, she said.

“We know how critically ill they are, and the family always says, ‘We want them home. Get them better. We need them back’,” she said.

But once patients are sick enough to be in the ICU, their chances of getting better are reduced, she said.

ICUs don’t get a lot of victories these days, she said.

A patient having a tube removed that was needed for breathing is reason for celebration, she said.

“We are seeing younger patients that are sicker,” she said. “That’s tough. It has been overwhelming.”

Some 60% to 100% of ICU beds recently have been needed for COVID-19 patients at Kadlec. Additional patients needing ICU-level care are being treated in other departments, including the emergency room, for lack of space in the ICU, said Dr. Phani Kantamneni, medical director of the Kadlec ICU.

All four of the hospitals in Benton and Franklin counties are similarly overburdened by high numbers of COVID-19 patients, say public health officials.

The 118 COVID patients the hospitals were treating on Friday beat the previous high COVID patient count of 115 earlier in the week.

All week COVID patients accounted for 30% of all patients at the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

On one recent day the Kadlec ICU had 21 patients on ventilators, all of them being treated for COVID.

Almost all COVID patients sick enough to be in the ICU and on ventilators are not vaccinated, Kantamneni said at a news briefing last week for the Benton Franklin Health District.

Aldaas said in the video that she’s vaccinated.

“Personally, I believe in the science,” she said, and her colleagues with the most expertise unanimously support vaccination.

People who oppose vaccination, should at least wear a mask as “an act of selflessness,” she said.

“It’s just such an easy thing to do that can save somebody else’s life,” she said.

Tri-Cities COVID deaths

The deaths announced Friday bring the total COVID deaths of Tri-Cities area residents announced so far this month to 30, up from 23 deaths announced in August and 10 in July.

The Benton Franklin Health District announces recent deaths once a week.

The high number of deaths reflect the surge in new cases since the more infectious delta variant of the coronavirus has become common and now accounts for nearly all cases in Benton and Franklin counties.

The deaths announced Friday included eight Benton County residents — a woman in her 40s, a man in his 50s, a woman and two men in their 60s, two men in their 70s and a woman in her 80s.

In Franklin County, a woman in her 70s and two men in their 80s died.

They bring the number of Tri-Cities area deaths since the start of the pandemic to 403, including 271 in Benton County and 132 in Franklin County.

Local public health officials verify that the deaths are due to COVID complications by checking for a positive test result and that a coronavirus infection was named as a primary cause of death on the death certificate.

It can take several weeks for the district to receive and reconcile death information for residents due to the reporting processes of medical facilities and coroners’ offices and the process of issuing and releasing death certificates.

In all of Washington state, 6,850 deaths due to the coronavirus have been reported since the start of the pandemic as of Friday morning, including 207 deaths announced in the past week, up from 172 the previous week.

Of the people who have died statewide, 220 were known to be vaccinated against COVID, according to the latest state report issued Sept. 8 on vaccination breakthrough cases.

At least 74 of them were residents of long-term care facilities.

Just one death of a fully vaccinated person is known in the Tri-Cities, according to county data available through July.

Tri-Cities COVID cases

The Tri-Cities area had 1,545 more cases of COVID-19 confirmed over the past week, as new daily cases appear to have plateaued.

They remain at the highest level of the pandemic, however, with new daily cases dropping slightly in Benton County. They are still rising at a slower rate in Franklin County, according to public health officials.

New daily cases for both counties averaged 221 over the past week, with weekly averages for new daily cases ranging from 203 to 234 over the previous four weeks.

The new case rate for Benton County was at 918 per 100,000 over two weeks as announced Friday. That’s down from a recent high of 972, but still above the previous peak in the winter.

The new case rate for Franklin County climbed to a recent high of 1,100 new cases per 100,000 peope over two weeks, as reported Friday.

It is still below its winter peak, however.

Statewide 56% of all people and 65% of those age 12 and older are fully vaccinated, not counting a small percentage who received vaccinations through the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration.

In Benton County that drops to 43% of all residents and 52% of people 12 and older who are fully vaccinated.

In Franklin County just under 37% of all residents and 46% of those 12 and older are fully vaccinated.

The Benton Franklin Health District says a low vaccination rate and large events with minimal efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are among leading risk factors in the Tri-Cities area.

This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 11:41 AM.