Editorial update: Heralding local health care heroes

While reflecting back on the stories of 2021, it would be nigh on impossible to find a Southeast Texan who wasn’t negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. From hundreds of visitor-limited funerals to approximately 7,000 COVID-positive patients seeking infusion therapy in Southeast Texas, 2021 was another year harrowed by the pandemic. However, it is perhaps an even taller task to find a resident who was not positively impacted by the tireless work of local doctors, nurses and health care staff embattled in a labor of love during a hectic 2021.

After spending much of 2020 in isolation, void of large gatherings and living in uncertainty, the latter half of 2021 presented a slight return to pre-pandemic lifestyles. Vaccinated residents could once again safely eat at their favorite restaurants or visit loved ones – actions that wouldn’t be possible without health care workers researching, developing and administering COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

Thanks primarily to a county coalition that brought together health care officials, nurses and doctors from Jefferson, Hardin, Orange, Newton and Jasper counties, more than 180,000 Southeast Texas residents have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Local nurses were called out of retirement, and traveling nurses were brought in from around the country to Southeast Texas’ vaccination hubs, where, officials say, up to 10,000 residents a day received vaccinations before supply became readily available.

As the public at large began to receive vaccinations during the spring and summer of 2021, local nurses and doctors became inundated with severely ill, COVID-positive patients – mostly those who decided against getting the free vaccination.

“Nurses are mentally tough, but we’re mentally exhausted,” nurse Rolanda Ford said during a COVID surge in September.

During one particularly unsettling trip to a Beaumont hospital during that surge, The Examiner found nearly every corridor of the ICU filled with patients in makeshift rooms. Seemingly barely clinging to life, scores of patients could be seen filling just about every available space. An ominous, mechanical chorus of beeps and whirs starkly contrasted nurses’ and doctors’ upbeat spirits. Dozens of patients were being cared for by nurses and doctors whose exhaustion was imperceivable.

“When you walk in, you have to put your face on,” Ford said. “Then you go to your car and cry, and then you put your face back on before you see your family. It’s exhausting. You cry with these people, you pray with them, you yell at them when they aren’t doing what you told them to do to get well because they’re so depressed.”

According to more than a dozen nurses who spoke to The Examiner in 2021, among the most agonizing aspects of the pandemic has been watching patients die without loved ones to hold their hands. The nature of this airborne contagion has caused hospitals around the country to teeter between allowing visitors and completely closing to those who aren’t actively seeking medical treatment. That scenario means numerous Southeast Texans have gone without a family member’s touch while on their deathbeds. Area nurses respond to this issue by offering the simple, but necessary, compassions of touch and attention, acting as mothers, friends, sisters, cheerleaders and everything else patients went without during pandemic-induced restrictions. Taking it a step further, nurses at local hospitals have been able to provide iPads for dying patients to Facetime loved ones who are barred from entry.

While countless industries have no doubt suffered pandemic-related hardships in 2021, health care workers’ increased workload included grappling with a global scourge that has already killed approximately 150,000 more United States citizens than the influenza pandemic of 1918.

“We have these patients coming in who are requiring more than just a sit in the hall, wait-and-see kind of thing,” a Medical Center ER nurse told The Examiner. “There are people coming in who are very sick, people who require oxygen and people who require very intense care. We have people coming in who are actively crashing; I mean they’re rolling in the ambulance, and we’re coding them and intubating them as soon as they roll in the door.”

Considering the exceptionally arduous performance required of nurses, doctors and health care workers during 2021, Beaumont Baptist Hospital’s COVID Unit Lead Intensivist Dr. Qamar Arfeen told The Examiner the area is blessed to have such remarkable care  locally available.

“We are blessed to have really excellent, top-notch nurses and medical care in Beaumont and Southeast Texas – you can’t even find better care in Houston,” Arfeen said.

New year, new surge

Thanks to a combination of a dawdling vaccination percentage among eligible residents, which only recently reached 50%, and those very people continuing to gather en masse, the Beaumont Health Department has confirmed 1,676 COVID-19 cases in the first five days of January alone.

Jefferson County Emergency Management Director Mike White said that surge has resulted in the regional infusion center increasing the number of patients it treated daily from 60 to 120. And, although officials have barely enough supply to ward off concern in the immediate future, the county has reached out to the state to request more supplies to administer more monoclonal antibody treatments.

Residents who receive the monoclonal antibody treatment typically avoid hospitalization, officials and patients report. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful pathogens such as viruses, according to a report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the Regeneron-brand treatment.

“I wanted to let you know that there exists a potential for the infusion center, later this week, to begin limiting infusions to those in high-risk health categories. We have not received the allocation that we ordered. This week we received about 15% of our requested amount,” said Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick of the 145 doses received. The county requested 1,200.

“We are searching high and low for alternative sources of supply and hope to be able to continue to serve all who desire the infusion,” Branick added. “Likewise, the state is working hard to provide what we need, but supply chain issues may become a challenge.”

Health care workers say there are two simple things the public can do to help lift the burden off their shoulders and avoid potentially deadly consequences: Wear a mask, and get vaccinated. And when it comes to searching for a vaccination location, Southeast Texans have numerous options from local pharmacies to national chains.

The Vidor Brookshire Brothers will accept walk-in applicants, while national chains like CVS and Walgreens ask customers to call or register online. In Beaumont, the vaccine is available at four CVS locations, all five Walgreens, both H-E-B stores, King’s Pharmacy, Walmart and each Kroger location. Groves vaccine appointments can be made at Bruce’s Pharmacy and Walgreens. The Magnolia Avenue Market Basket is also offering vaccine doses.

Lumberton-bound vaccine seekers can find doses at the Brookshire Brothers on Main Street, although the store asks residents to call ahead. Lumberton’s Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and King Pharmacy locations all offer vaccine doses.

The Beaumont Public Health Department is also administering COVID-19 vaccinations by appointment only, and applicants can register online at beaumonttexas.gov. Those who are unable to access the website are asked to call (409) 550-2536 for further assistance. This covers citizens in Hardin, Jefferson, Jasper, Newton and Orange counties.