ICU Nurse on Delta Surge: 'It's a Lot of Death, and It's the New Normal'

A North Carolina intensive care unit (ICU) nurse on Thursday expressed concerns over the increasing death rate caused by the COVID-19 Delta variant across the state, saying, "It's a lot of death, and it's the new normal."

"We are definitely caring for some of the sickest patients in the hospital right now. In the beginning, it was scary. Now, it's just my normal, everyday job," Kat Phillips, a surgical ICU nurse at UNC Medical Center, told WRAL News. "I think we are in crisis mode. The nurses are feeling it. The hospital is feeling it. Other patients are feeling it."

Around a quarter of hospital patients in North Carolina are being hospitalized for COVID, according to WRAL News, including 39 percent who are being treated in intensive care units.

"Just in my past weeks of working, I've lost two patients that I cared for," Phillips said, according to the news outlet. "It's a lot of death, and it's the new normal, I think—a lot of death around here."

Philips said that this wave of the virus has sicker and younger patients compared with previous COVID waves throughout the pandemic. According to Philips, many patients are placed on ventilators, dialysis, and heart-lung bypass machines to help them keep their internal bodies functional as they battle COVID.

The rise in cases is exhausting health care workers at the hospital where the ICU staff works 12-hour shifts, in addition to an overtime period if necessary, according to WRAL News. The ICU staff said that, at the moment, only 40 percent of COVID patients who receive treatment at the surgical ICU are able to beat the virus.

"It's exhausting and it's frustrating at the same time because we have the vaccine that's available that can prevent this type of sickness," Phillips said, according to WRAL News. "Obviously, it's not going to prevent you from getting the virus, but it can prevent you from getting to this last-ditch effort to save your life."

A UNC Medical Center spokesperson told Newsweek that even though the ICU staff are currently burdened due to the current rise in COVID cases, the hospital was able to "flex resources to match clinical demand but it has been challenging for our teams."

"Among the ICU patients who require ECMO (often a last-ditch effort to save lives), all of them are unvaccinated," the spokesperson said. "At one point in early June, our ICUs had no COVID patients for about 36 hours. Since then, we have seen a rapid and steady increase."

On Thursday, UNC Medical Center had 11 COVID patients being treated in the surgical ICU, according to WRAL News, and a total of 13 others in the medical ICU and the pediatric ICU.

"Kids get sick with COVID," Chief of Pediatric Medical Care Benny Joyner said, according to the news outlet. "Kids can have a breathing tube placed into their throat with COVID. Kids can have long-term consequences with COVID. Kids are impacted by COVID."

The hospital treated around 20 children with COVID, including six who required pediatric ICU care, according to the UNC Medical Center spokesperson.

UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill has been seeing an increase in COVID patients since June.

Around 90 percent of COVID patients admitted to UNC Medical Center are unvaccinated, said the spokesperson, who pointed out that this is "slightly" a higher percentage for those COVID patients who need to be treated in the ICU.

Massive COVID clusters among children have been reported in North Carolina. On Tuesday the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reported 73 active clusters in K–12 schools statewide, which is a 62 percent increase since last week.

North Carolina also reported 38 clusters in child care settings, marking a 3 percent increase from last week.

The state reported 5,351 new COVID cases on Tuesday, including 3,612 people hospitalized.

According to the NCDHHS, 65 percent of North Carolina's adult population has received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, with 60 percent fully vaccinated.

Updated 9/5/21, 2:20 PM ET, to include comments from a UNC Medical Center spokesperson.