COVID-19 epidemic in the United States continues to worsen. After major cities have been hit hard one after another, the rural areas of the United States have not been spared. The epidemic seems to have spread to all corners of the United States.
Outside the parking lot of a medical center in the Hutchinson area of rural Kansas, Tammy has been staying here for more than an hour. He has been observing her husband Daniel in the ward through the glass, and he is late to leave, hoping that he can wake up. Daniel is infected with COVID-19 and currently lives on ventilators.
Tammy: It’s hard to look through the glass (my husband). This is something I don’t want to do in my whole life. I can only look through the glass. It’s hard. I think maybe the next second, he may wake up.
Local medical institutions and health officials said that many hospitals are seriously short of beds and medical equipment, as well as medical staff. Due to the shortage of medical staff, Kristi Sock, a nurse in the intensive care unit, has been working at night, which has been worn out physically and mentally because she rarely needed to work night shifts before.
Intensive care nurse Kristy Sock: Sometimes we need to take care of the same number of patients as many larger institutions, but we have fewer people than them, so sometimes understaffing is difficult for us, and many people need to work overtime.
In this rural community, it is common for relatives and friends of medical staff to become their own patients by contracting COVID-19. Kevin Hoover, a nurse at a Kansas hospital, often sees his friends, neighbors and family coming to the hospital. One of his golf friends is being treated for COVID-19 in the hospital.
Nurse Kevin Hoover: He is a golfer I know. In my conversation with him, I can sometimes feel his fear because he doesn’t understand. Many COVID-19 patients also have this real fear because of the spread of the epidemic.
