Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce criticized Central Peninsula Hospital COO, Shaun Keef, during his quarterly presentation to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Tuesday evening.
Keef said that, amid the surge in COVID-19 cases across the Kenai Peninsula, Central Peninsula Hospital continues to fill up with COVID patients:
“As far as our capacity when I walked in this morning, all of the beds were full. We have been holding patients over in the ED because we have been so full lately.”
Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce, however, said:
“So I’m not a doctor and I’m not an expert, but let me tell you, I live here and I’m familiar with a lot of cases that go through your emergency room. You are too. Is that fair? I have a few friends that have been over there in that emergency room. They had COVID. Their vitals were taken. They hydrated them. They were having difficulties breathing but they were still breathing. Their oxygen levels were still at a level that where it was not as concerning to the ER doctors so they didn’t admit them, but they sent them home without a script, without any medication, and told to just take ibuprofen. One of my very closest friends and went through the hospital, wound up on a ventilator and almost died. There’s a doctor in Texas, tested FrontlineMDS.com. They will give you some medications and she will tell you, very quickly, she will stand in front of the other doctors that are educated, Harvard grads, all of these doctors that are heavily educated, and she’ll tell you that you don’t have to die with COVID.”
Pierce also said:
“I can’t help but sit back and think about the medical establishment that’s sitting here that’s promoting a vaccine that’s subscribed to say that it will limit the effects, or that it will make everybody safe and create a more perfect world. Yet, it had about the same amount of time that you would give to medications that are readily available that some doctors say are readily available, that should be tested and should be given an opportunity to prove their worth. But I have to sit here and listen to the folks that have gone through your emergency room? What do you charge somebody that goes in there that you give a ibuprofen script to and send them home?”
Keef said his intentions is to continue day surgeries amid the surge in COVID-19 cases:
“We’re doing our very best to keep elective surgeries open. We fight that battle day by day.”
Meanwhile, Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Anne Zink says that hospital staff are burned out and enduring heartbreaking work as COVID-19 cases continue to surge statewide. She says that the surge in cases is stressing the hospital system and increasing wait times for people seeking emergency care for injuries or other illnesses.
