A Florida man has issued an impassioned plea to unvaccinated people to get the COVID shot after his wife, who is battling stage four cancer, had to spend five hours waiting to be admitted to an ER last week because the hospital was overrun with virus patients.
Fort Lauderdale resident Karen Breitbart has stage four colon cancer that has spread to her abdomen, and was so ill after a recent chemotherapy treatment that her doctor told her to visit the emergency room.
But when she got there, her husband had to leave her at the door due to pandemic restrictions, according to People — and inside, Karen was left alone for five hours before staff were finally able to put her on a gurney in a hallway to await a free bed.
Karen Breitbart has stage four colon cancer and and was severely ill after a recent chemotherapy treatment, so her doctor told her to go the ER
Florida reported 31,164 new cases of COVID-19 to the CDC on Monday, as well as 902 new deaths, according to the Miami Herald.
The state hospitals also reported 15,778 patients, which is 27.5% of all patients in those hospitals.
The stats are even more striking for ICU patients: 3,477, or 53.0%, were there due to COVID. According to CNN, that’s left Florida hospitals with less than 10% of their ICU bed capacity
Those dire numbers have meant many people — like Karen Breitbart — are waiting hours for medical care for conditions unrelated to COVID.
On August 14, while Karen was suffering from severe side effects of chemo, including nausea, her husband called around to local hospitals looking for a place to bring her.
Gregg, 59, described ‘horror’ of phoning different ERs in the area and being told that waits were as long as 12 hours.
‘The hospital closest to our home had 82 patients working their way through the ER system there, with projected wait times of 3 to 12 hours,’ he wrote on Facebook.
Her husband left her at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, which currently has a no visitor policy due to severe COVID risk
‘The main hospital about 30 minutes away also stated that they could not guarantee that anyone would see her within 4 to 6 hours, even though they acknowledged that her situation sounded pretty serious.
‘In both cases, the hospital staff indicated that this terrible situation was mainly a function of unvaccinated people arriving at the emergency room with COVID symptoms,’ he said.
He ultimately dropped her off alone at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, which currently has a no visitor policy due to severe COVID risk.
There, Karen ‘sat in a waiting room chair for almost 5 hours with a sick bag, all alone’ before she was moved to a gurney in a hallway. She went on to spent several more hours on that gurney before she was finally moved to a bed in an ER cubicle.
According to People, an ER nurse told Gregg that 70 other people were in the same boat as Karen, awaiting care for non-COVID ailments.
Though Karen, who has two grown daughters, is now home after 56 hours in the hospital, the experience left the couple shaken.
‘The issue of COVID vaccinations has become very personal for my wife and our family,’ Gregg wrote on Facebook after his wife was admitted, detailing the ordeal.
Karen spent hours alone with a sick bag in the waiting room before getting a gurney in a hallway; hours later, she finally got a bed
‘So, my friends, this is where your “personal freedom” to remain unvaccinated is now causing severe, negative impacts for the rest of us, including my wife and my family, in a very direct way,’ he said.
‘News reports indicate that as many as 97% of the people presenting themselves to ERs around the country with COVID symptoms are unvaccinated. Essentially, they are clogging the system, making it very difficult — and in some cases, impossible — for those whose illnesses are not preventable to get the treatment and attention they need.
‘Listen, the results are in, and they’re not disputable. COVID is largely preventable,’ he continued.
‘The vaccines are safe and effective, and the Pfizer vaccine now has full use authorization. Are they perfect? No. But the scientific evidence establishes that individually and collectively, we all stand a far greater chance of getting through this alive and without subjecting the medical system to these kinds of overloads — which in turn, create grave risks for people like Karen — if more of us get vaccinated.’
He implored those who were ‘waiting’ to get vaccinated to finally do so, and asked those who ‘have more deeply held resistance,’: ‘What gives?’
Gregg has pleaded with Facebook followers to get the jab after the horrifying ordeal
He said: ‘I know most of you who will read this to be smart, kind, unselfish people; yet, with all due respect, your choice to remain unvaccinated, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence that the vaccines work and that the unvaccinated are creating tremendous strains on the medical system throughout the country — seems selfish and unkind.
‘I respect and value the concept of personal freedom. However, every day when we leave our homes, we do so under a social contract that depends on us doing (or not doing) certain things so as to not cause undue harm to those around us,’ he said.
He pointed out that people wear seatbelts, stop at red lights, refrain from driving drunk, and don’t steal.
‘Yet, on this one issue, for reasons that are beyond my ability to comprehend, people ignore that social contract in favor of some unsupported, non-existent boogeyman as to why these vaccines are bad,’ he said.
‘Folks, I hope you never have to drop a loved one in serious distress off at a hospital waiting room, to sit there alone for 5 hours or more, while you wait to hear whether anyone has seen him or her yet, or what’s even going on.
‘And there’s a way you can increase the chances that you’ll never have to do that. Get vaccinated. For yourself, for your family, for your friends. And for Karen,’ he concluded.
Just 52.8% percent of Florida residents are fully vaccinated. The state ranks 21st in vaccinations.
It has the fourth-highest number of overall deaths — 44,553 — behind California, Texas, and New York.
However, deaths in those other states are down significantly: While Florida has documented a seven-day average of 262 deaths a day, California has 90, Texas has 209, and New York has just 25.