Distressing video shows California hospital overwhelmed by COVID patients
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A California National Guard medic pushes an incoming patient past triage tents set up outside Providence St. Mary Medical Center amid a surge in COVID-19 patients in Southern California on December 18, 2020 in Apple Valley.Mario Tama / Getty Images
Packed hallways, people struggling to breathe, panicking family members.
A heart-wrenching video from the Washington Post captures what the surge really looks like for hospital workers in Apple Valley, a high desert community in San Bernardino County. St. Mary Medical Center has 213 hospital beds and 20 ICU spaces but it s way past capacity as it struggles to keep up with the ever-growing number of COVID patients.
The frenetic scene inside a California hospital struggling to keep pace with the coronavirus pandemic
Print article APPLE VALLEY, Calif. - The hospital spreads over a block along Happy Trails Highway, which splits this high-desert town in half as it runs low and wide down a gentle hill. All around St. Mary Medical Center is a new silence. Fat Jack’s Bar & Grill is shuttered, never to reopen. The Chamber of Commerce, featuring a rearing, life-size model of the mid-century movie-star horse Trigger, is empty. “Intermission,” reads the marquee of the High Desert Center for the Arts, which sits at the edge of this longtime home of antique Hollywood royalty, the singing cowboy Roy Rogers and his co-star wife, Dale Evans.
California hospital struggles to keep pace with the pandemic
Scott Wilson, The Washington Post
Dec. 18, 2020
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1of15Ambulances arrive at the St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif. on Dec. 13, 2020.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less
2of15An ambulance leaves a suburban area en route to the nearby St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif. on December 12, 2020.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less
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4of15A team of nurses perform the prone positioning maneuver on a critically ill patient.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less
5of15A respiratory therapist carries oxygen tanks, as she rushes to a nearby hallway full of Covid 19 patients at the St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif.Washington Post photo by Michael S. WilliamsonShow MoreShow Less
The scene inside a California hospital overrun with covid cases washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.