Tough to imagine what may lie ahead

Imagine you have a heart attack and are taken to the local hospital. You have had a heart attack and need to have heart surgery. The surgeons are available but there are no intensive care beds available because they are filled with COVID patients.

Imagine your 18-yearold daughter is an auto accident and critically injured. She’s in the Emergency Room, but there is no available bed in Intensive Care because they are filled by COVID patients. The staff frantically try to find another hospital to take her but they too, are overwhelmed with COVID patients.

Imagine your neighbor, friends of many years, falls off his roof and breaks his neck, he waits in the emergency room but there is no intensive care bed for him. Hours go by while staff try to find a hospital that can treat him.

Imagine you can’t breathe. You go to the Emergency Room and are given oxygen, but you have to lay on a gurney in the hall because the ER is full and there is no available room for you.

Imagine you are in the hospital. You had a severe case of COVID and are recovered enough that you are no longer in isolation. But you can’t go home because you need too much oxygen.

Imagine what if most people in the community had gotten the vaccine and worn masks. You wouldn’t have to imagine what happens when they don’t.

— Lois Olson, Chico