A nurse
treats
COVID-19
patient
Cedric
Daniels,
37, of
Gonzales,
La., at
Our Lady
of the
Lake
Regional
Medical
Center
in Baton
Rouge,
Monday,
Aug. 2,
2021.
Louisiana
is
leading
the
nation
in the
number
of new
COVID
cases
per
capita
and
remains
one of
the
bottom
five
states
in
administering
vaccinations.
(AP
Photo/Ted
Jackson) |
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Unvaccinated,
hospitalized:
Patient
now
advocates
for
shots |
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By
STACEY
PLAISANCE
apnews.com
BATON
ROUGE,
La. -
Cedric
Daniels
and
Joshua
Bradstreet
Contreras
didn’t
think
they
really
needed
the
coronavirus
vaccine.
After
all, the
uncle
and
nephew
are both
young —
37 and
22,
respectively
— and
Contreras
was “as
healthy
as a
horse,”
Daniels
said.
But
just
days
after
Daniels
went to
visit
Contreras
in New
Orleans
— a
long-awaited
reunion
that
came
after
not
seeing
each
other
for
months
because
of the
pandemic
— the
nephew
was
rushed
away in
an
ambulance.
He
couldn’t
breathe,
even
when
sitting
completely
still.
He is
now in a
hospital
in a New
Orleans
suburb,
on a
ventilator
and in a
medically
induced
coma.
At
about
the same
time,
Daniels
started
feeling
weak,
had
blurred
vision
and was
so short
of
breath
he could
barely
make it
from his
couch in
the
living
room to
the
bathroom.
He
tested
positive
for the
virus,
then
went to
a
hospital
in Baton
Rouge
already
overwhelmed
with
COVID-19
patients,
where he
stayed
for a
week on
oxygen
as he
recovered
from
pneumonia.
Contreras
and
Daniels
are
among a
flood of
patients
filling
up
overloaded
hospitals
across
the U.S.
amid a
surge of
COVID-19
cases
driven
by the
virus’s
highly
contagious
delta
variant.
Health
officials
say the
most
serious
cases
have
been
among
the
unvaccinated.
“It
is
frustrating,
because
it’s
preventable
… but
more
than
that,
it’s
really
sad,”
said
James
Ford, a
critical
care
doctor
in the
ICU at
Our Lady
of the
Lake
Medical
Center
in Baton
Rouge,
where
Daniels
was
treated.
To
help
with the
influx,
the
hospital
brought
in a
disaster
medical
assistance
team of
nearly
three
dozen
health
care
workers
on
Monday.
That
same
day,
hospital
leaders
at a
news
conference
where
Gov.
John Bel
Edwards
announced
a
reinstated
statewide
mask
mandate
described
grim
conditions
across
Louisiana:
facilities
filled
with
COVID-19
patients,
including
children,
and
hospital
hallways
lined
with
stretchers
because
there
aren’t
enough
beds.
“A
lot of
them are
debilitated
and need
around-the-clock
care,”
said
Ford,
who has
been
working
on his
days off
to help
ease his
hospital’s
burden.
“It’s
very
labor
intensive.”
Some
of those
patients,
like
Daniels,
now wish
they had
taken
the
shot.
“They’re
talking
about
putting
tubes
down
your
throat
possibly
if your
oxygen
doesn’t
go up
within
the next
hour,
and that
is
frightening,”
he told
The
Associated
Press on
Monday
as he
lay in a
bed with
an
oxygen
tube in
his
nose. He
was
released
shortly
afterward
but
still
must use
oxygen
at home.
“I
am now a
huge
advocate
for
doctor’s
orders,”
Daniels
added.
“They
think we
ought to
get
vaccinated,
I think
we ought
to get
vaccinated.”
Daniels,
who
lives in
Gonzales,
about 57
miles
(92
kilometers)
northwest
of New
Orleans,
said he
and
Contreras
were the
only
unvaccinated
members
of their
households.
Daniels’
wife and
live-in
mother-in-law,
both of
whom
were
inoculated
months
ago,
have
both
tested
negative
twice
since he
tested
positive.
Contreras’
mother,
Tarsha
Bradstreet,
had also
been
vaccinated,
as had
her
19-year-old
son who
lives in
the same
house in
New
Orleans.
Bradstreet
said she
tried to
persuade
Contreras
to get
the
shot,
but said
she had
only so
much
pull
over
him.
“Josh
hardly
goes
anywhere
since
COVID
hit, so
he
didn’t
think he
needed
the
vaccine,”
Bradstreet
said.
One
of the
places
to which
Contreras
did go,
however,
was his
summer
job at
Café
Reconcile.
About
the time
he
started
getting
ill, he
got a
call
from the
restaurant
telling
him that
a
co-worker
had
tested
positive
for the
virus
and he
needed
to get
tested
himself.
“He
had a
headache
and some
nausea,
so at
first we
thought
it was
dehydration,”
Bradstreet
said. “A
week
later,
he
couldn’t
smell.
He
couldn’t
breathe.
I
noticed
his
breath
was
quick
and
rapid,
and he
could
barely
stand up
or do
anything.
I had to
call an
ambulance.”
A
while
later,
the
hospital
called
and
said,
“‘Your
son is
on a
ventilator,’
and I
almost
died,”
Bradstreet
said. “I
couldn’t
believe
it. I
didn’t
realize
how
serious
it was.
I didn’t
know. He
almost
died.”
Bradstreet
talks to
her son
every
day
through
one of
the
hospital’s
portable
laptops,
so that
he can
hear her
voice
even if
he can’t
see her.
She
also
prays a
lot, and
hopes
that
sharing
her
son’s
story
will
motivate
others
who have
not yet
been
vaccinated
to go
and get
the
shot.
“When we
go
through
things,
it’s to
help
other
people,
to teach
people
something,”
she
said.
“Their
choice
may
leave
them in
the
hospital.
Maybe
they’ll
get the
lesson
before
they
have to
go
through
this.”
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