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'Breaking Point': Navajo Hospitals Warn Of Bed, Nurse And Oxygen Supply Shortages
Navajo Nation leaders and medical professionals on Thursday warned the reservation is facing shortages of hospital beds, nurses and oxygen supplies as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the area and across the country.
During a livestreamed briefing on the pandemic, several doctors working at hospitals in the Navajo region described a health care system at its breaking point.
“I am a very concerned about this second rise in COVID-19 cases that we’re seeing locally,” said Dr. Jonathan Iralu, an infectious disease specialist at the Gallup Indian Medical Center. “It’s gotten to the point where our facilities are deeply challenged and getting to the point of being overwhelmed.”
Navajo Nation ― the largest American Indian reservation in the United States, spanning roughly 27,000 square miles across portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah ― was able to reduce the spread of the virus in the early fall after being hit especially hard in the late spring and early summer. But cases, hospitalizations and deaths across the reservation have begun to rise at an alarming rate in recent weeks, as those numbers surge in other areas of the U.S. as well.
As of Wednesday, there have been more than 17,000 confirmed cases on Navajo Nation and at least 658 deaths, according to data compiled by the Navajo Department of Health and Navajo Epidemiology Center.
“What we see is really unprecedented since the influenza pandemic of 1918,” Dr. Ouida Vincent, clinical director of the Northern Navajo Medical Center, said during the briefing Thursday.
Securing enough respiratory support systems, like high-flow oxygen machines, has been a challenge and one that is likely to get worse as hospitals nationwide compete for supplies, several doctors said during the briefing Thursday.
“On Friday, we had too few high flow machines for the numbers of patients needing them,” Vincent said. “We were able to make adjustments but it was traumatic for staff.”
“Our...
