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A Nashville, Tennessee woman who needs surgery for a serious medical condition that makes it difficult to breathe claims that the operation has been pushed back by a month or more due to the hospital being too slammed with COVID-19 patients.
Betsy Phillips, a writer for Nashville Scene's political blog "Pith in the Wind," wrote Tuesday that she had recently received a phone call notifying her that her surgery planned for this week was bumped back due to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where her operation was set to take place, being slammed by COVID patients.
"I am not having surgery this week," Phillips wrote. "The hospital is too full of COVID patients, and the ORs are being shut down so that personnel can deal with COVID patients instead—patients who are mostly unvaccinated. My surgery will be rescheduled maybe in October, depending on COVID."
Phillips, age 47, is suffering from a "granulomatous issue brought on by a histoplasmosis infection," she explained in an email to Newsweek.
"Basically, I have a bunch of lumps in my chest and neck, with an especially big one resting right next to my windpipe. Sometimes, depending on how I move or if it's shifted, it makes it difficult for me to breathe," Phillips explained. "This is the second one I've had that affected my breathing, so it's pretty traumatic."
Phillips has been suffering through these symptoms for eight months and was supposed to undergo surgery to relieve her breathing troubles last Friday. "I was really counting on feeling better," she told Newsweek.
COVID-19 cases are surging in Tennessee, where the percentage of unvaccinated patients is particularly high, and there is no statewide indoor mask mandate. The combination is putting pressure on an overtaxed hospital system that is struggling to care for its mostly unvaccinated COVID patients at the same time as those with other medical concerns.
As is happening in hospitals throughout the country, when ICU beds and hospital resources are reaching capacity, doctors and administrators are having to make the difficult decisions to delay what's referred to as "elective" surgeries.
The term "elective" simply refers to any surgery that isn't an absolute emergency situation in order to "maintain life or limb," Brian Cole, chair of surgery at Rush Oak Park Hospital, told Advisory.com.
As of September 6, just 42 percent of Tennessee residents were fully vaccinated, trailing behind the rest of the country, where 53 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, and 63 percent have received at least one dose, according to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
At Vanderbilt University Medical Center specifically, the most recent figures released Tuesday show 218 admitted COVID patients over the last seven days, with 87 percent of them unvaccinated. The statistics include a note specifying that a "majority" of the vaccinated patients who were hospitalized also had underlying immune compromising issues.
