Over one year into the pandemic, the head of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance wants people to better understand the toll the virus can take on people.
CEO Lori Marshall points to the case of a patient who has been battling COVID-19 for months, and was discharged on Thursday.
“This individual has had a length of stay at the hospital of over 80 days,” Marshall says. “They started out in the intensive care unit, they then moved to our COVID unit, and eventually went home from our rehab unit.”
Marshall says that’s in stark contrast to the average hospital stay of seven days.
“We’re concerned with how long COVID patients do take to recover when they are in hospital, so that adds to some of this. Also, we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in the age group.”
At the end of the week, there were seven COVID patients being treated at the hospital, with an average age of 63, ranging from their 50s to 80s.
“That is very different than during the first or second wave, in terms of the profile of admissions to hospital.”
