Sonora’s medical professionals speak out about COVID-19 surge
A doctor at Adventist Health Sonora and a family nurse practitioner who’s a sixth-generation Tuolumne County resident say the latest wave of COVID-19 cases is hitting the hospital harder than any other point of the pandemic, and it all could have been avoided.
“What’s painful for health care providers like myself and especially members of my team is most of the admitted patients we’re seeing from COVID, these are preventable,” Dr. Philip Clarkson said in an interview Friday via teleconference. “These very sick patients are preventable.”
Clarkson, of Sonora, has worked at Tuolumne County’s only hospital since 2017. As a provider of hospitalist services, he only sees patients when they are so sick that they need to be admitted for extended medical treatment.
The stark difference between the current surge and others in the past 18 months, Clarkson said, is that
18 months, Clarkson said, is that the patients who have made it past the emergency room and into his care are almost all unvaccinated.
“I’ve only treated two fully vaccinated COVID patients in the past sixplus months,” he said. “For the unvaccinated patients, I’ve probably treated in excess of 50.”
“It’s almost entirely unvaccinated patients who come in, need to be admitted and are very, very sick,” he said.
Clarkson said he was treating six unvaccinated COVID-19 patients when he last worked on Thursday, five of whom he believed may not leave the hospital alive.
The county Public Health Department announced the deaths of two residents over the past week, a man in his 60s on Wednesday and another in his 70s on Friday, both of whom were reported to be unvaccinated.
“We have, in my mind, a lot of preventable deaths that are happening to loved ones, family and the community itself,” he said.
Another aspect about COVID-19 that Clarkson said most people don’t see is the strain that it puts on the local health care system’s limited resources. The hospital currently has between about 75 and 80 staffed beds, with a third of those currently filled by COVID-19 patients.
Clarkson said a person admitted to the hospital for a NON-COVID reason is typically released within about three or four days, while the length of stay for a patient with the virus can be 10 days to two weeks.
In addition, some hospitals outside of the area currently aren’t accepting patients due to their own lack of beds.
“We have non-covID patients who come through the emergency room, and we can’t provide all of the services they need,” Clarkson said. “This is not only affecting patients with COVID, but also patients without COVID.”
Clarkson’s biggest fear with the current trajectory of new cases, which hit a record high this past week, is it overwhelming the hospital’s resources to the point where they are having to determine which patients receive services and which don’t.
“I pray every single day we never get there, but it is a reality,” he said. “It’s happened in other places.”
Clarkson said getting vaccinated is one of the best ways people can help prevent such a situation, along with wearing a mask in public and physical distancing.
One moment that stood out to Clarkson was when a patient dying of COVID-19 told him he would rather die than take the vaccine, though more patients he’s treated have pledged to get vaccinated as soon as they could.
“I would just like people to know this is real, this is not fake, this disease is real, and, unfortunately, it’s unvaccinated people who are being affected the most right now,” he said. “We have to come together as a community, mask up, and get vaccinated.
Before a patient is admitted and treated by Clarkson, they might first come through the emergency department and be seen by Krysta Wolken, a family nurse practitioner for Sierra Emergency Medical Group whose family’s roots in the county date back six generations.
Wolken describes herself as a churchgoing, godfearing, U.S. Navy veteran and child of Tuolumne County who doesn’t want to see anyone else in her community get severely ill or die needlessly.
“We’re working short staffed, we’re working with really sick people, and they’re my people,” she said. “These are my people, and I take great ownership in that.”
Throughout the course of the pandemic, Wolken said she has wiped tears from the faces of countless COVID-19 patients as they’re struggling to breathe while battling to survive. She has also cried alongside family members of those who didn’t make it.
Wolken is fully vaccinated along with those in her family who are eligible by age, including her 16-yearold daughter.
However, some nights after getting exposed to a COVID-19 patient at work, Wolken is forced to stay in the family’s VRBO at their home because her 10-year-old son is not yet eligible to receive the vaccine.
Only children 12 and up are currently eligible for the Pfizer shot.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve cried watching my family eat together, and I can’t be with them because my kid is too little,” she said. “People don’t see that side. That includes nurses, our techs, our janitors. They have no idea the rippling effects it’s having on our families.”
Wolken said the staff in the emergency department have had a 2-monthold baby come in who is Covid-positive, as well as had to fly children out for treatment at outside hospitals.
Every day Wolken and her colleagues show up for work, they have to undergo screenings for symptoms, temperature checks and be wearing an N95 mask before they are allowed to enter.
The gear that hospital staff must wear and frequently change out as they are treating COVIDpositive patients as well as others includes a fullgown, gloves, face shield, an N95, a surgical mask over the N95, shoe coverings and hair nets.
“That’s the reality,” she said. “We’re working in a horribly uncomfortable situation, but we’ve been doing it every single day we show up.”
In recent weeks, Wolken has taken to social media to combat misinformation about COVID-19 and the safety of the vaccines. More than half of Tuolumne County’s population is not vaccinated.
Wolken said one of the most disheartening aspects of the pandemic has been the political turmoil and vitriol, but she remains hopeful the community will ultimately band together as it has done in the face of past crises.
“I’d rather see my community, like it’s done many times before, come together and lock arms,” she said. “I just pray for more grace. I always tell my kids there’s more good than bad in the world, and I still believe that.”