The fast-advancing world of COVID-19 treatment has found that steroid treatment, antiviral medication and even blood thinners can help keep people alive in the ICU, improving the odds for patients. "There's usually a peace knowing in that." "COVID-19 is such a new disease and sometimes I feel helpless, whereas with other illnesses we know what to do," she said. Nurses are accustomed to seeing patients die, Hudson said, but it's frustrating to know that the disease is still new and unfamiliar, and that more could have been done to save them. Treatment has improved and mortality rates have decreased among COVID-19 patients, but it remains high: The mortality rate among those admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 exceeds 30%. No one is allowed to visit members who are seriously ill and pass away in the ICU, she said, leaving it to people like herself to be that emotional support. Though the protective gear is a burden, she said the real difference is the no-visitor policy. Photo by Magali Gauthier.Īmong those nurses working in the ICU is Hudson, who moved to the Bay Area from Hawaii in August with no prior experience with COVID-19 patients. The surge in new COVID-19 cases forced hospitals to push beds into hallways and forced some hospitals to compromise staff-patient ratios.Ī monitor outside a COVID-19 patient's room controls the ventilator the patient is on. Starting in December, El Camino and other hospitals across the region found themselves essentially out of room: Available ICU capacity sank to less than 1% across the Bay Area, prompting a return to stay-at-home orders that state officials only recently lifted. The arduous donning and doffing of protective gear along the bustling hallway of rooms is just part of the new reality, as hospital staff meticulously treat the highly infectious patients. Suiting up with new gloves, a protective coverall and a specialized helmet, Hudson balances a tray of food into the room and shuts the door behind her.įor months, the hospital's ICU beds have been filled close to capacity, with one unit entirely devoted to patients who fall very ill with COVID-19. Inside one of El Camino Hospital's intensive care units, nurse Lynn Hudson began the long and methodical process of checking up on a patient. During the final phase of the project, we provided construction administration services as well as construction staking.Nurse Trysta Almeida brings an a tablet into the room of a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit for a video visit at El Camino Health's Mountain View campus on Jan. Surveying services included the preparation of: boundary and topographic survey ALTA survey tunnel survey interior floor survey and exterior floor survey. Engineering services included demolition plans grading and drainage plans utility plans for storm water, sanitary sewer, domestic, and fire water routing and alignment for site electrical site structural horizontal control plan as-built plans and storm water pollution prevention plan (SWPPP). In addition to the new hospital, the project included: Melchor Medical office building (3-story, 66,000 s.f.) New Oak Pavilion (2-story, 29,000 s.f.) Parking structure (4-story, 852 spaces) and Expansion of the central plant. hospital is comprised of 300 licensed beds (85% private), emergency department (36 beds and 10 bed observation unit) 16 operating/interventional treatment rooms and a conference center. Sandis provided engineering and surveying services for the replacement of the existing El Camino Mountain View hospital.
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