As we get closer to the end of the month, the number of people dying from COVID locally continues to rise.
Over the weekend, the Butler Health System reported four deaths and the county’s death toll currently sits at 591. So far in December, the hospital has reported 27 deaths due to COVID.
Butler Health System Infectious Disease Director Dr. John Love says the hospital has never seen this amount of death.
“When people say ‘This is no worse than the flu,’ we’ve never had winters of the flu where we have four people dying in a day, or 12 people dying in a weekend,” Love said. “Our staff has never had to deal with death at this rate.”
Love also says that the hospital staff is being drained emotionally because of the connections they build with COVID patients who ultimately succumb to the virus.
“There is a real sense of pain with that patient’s death; a real sense of loss and sympathy for the patient’s family. And then frankly, that patient’s bed is filled with another COVID patient almost immediately and [the staff] has to get back to the task at hand.”
For the past month, Butler Memorial Hospital has been averaging around 50 COVID patients that receive treatment.
Listen to Dr. John Love’s interview with Butler Radio’s Tracey Morgan below:
