ST. LOUIS — COVID-19 numbers are trending in the right direction. According to data from The St. Louis Pandemic Task Force, new hospitalizations have been declining for the last month.
But despite those numbers, health care workers on the front lines are still seeing packed ICU's. Today in St. Louis’ Allie Corey recently had the opportunity to tour the ICU and Step-Down unit at SSM St. Joseph Hospital in Lake St. Louis.
The sounds inside the ICU at SSM St. Joseph Hospital are relentless. The incessant beeping of ventilators and alarms is the new normal inside hospitals in this pandemic.
"These sounds are sounds that we hear every day in the ICU. This is reality and this is not a reality that we want people to have,” said Dr. Mano Patri, Infectious disease specialist.
Staff say it’s even worse in the area known as the Step-Down unit. Respiratory Therapist Mellisa Scholl gave 5 On Your Side the tour.
"This is the saddest place in the hospital because this is where people decide if they want to go on life support or if they don't. So, this is the unit where people die," explained Scholl.
At the beginning of October, more than 300 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at St. Joseph. Eighty percent of them were not vaccinated.
"I can tell you of all the patients we've had I can think of two that were vaccinated with severe symptoms. Only two out of the hundreds,” Scholl said.
5 On Your Side briefly spoke to some of the other nurses working the step-down unit.
"There was at one point one in nine of my patients was dying in a week and that was by far the most I've seen in my nursing career,” One nurse explained.
Allie Corey asked one of the nurses, "What happens if someone comes here and you guys don't have any more room?”
“We would try to find a bed elsewhere in a different hospital,” the nurse responded.
When 5 On Your Side toured St. Joseph at the beginning of October, both the ICU and the Step-Down unit were full. The biggest difference between this wave of COVID-19 and the first, is that patients are much younger now.
Data from the St. Louis Pandemic Task Force shows the majority of those hospitalized are between 45 to 64 years old.
"It doesn't matter if you're a marathon runner, it doesn't care. COVID doesn't care if takes you. It’s going to go full force,” Dr. Patri said.
Dr. Patri said there's no way to tell how COVID might affect you.
"It’s a gamble, you may be fine, but you may not. So the severity is invariably in unvaccinated people,” said Dr. Patri.
Sadly, the health care workers we spoke to said they witness a lot of regret. One woman in particular sticks with Scholl.
"She was on a lot of oxygen and I was talking to her and she said the minute she gets out of the hospital she was going to get the vaccine and she was going to encourage her family to do so as well and she didn't make it,” said Scholl.
That woman was 70 years old.