Sheridan Memorial continues to monitor ever changing variables as doctors and nurses witness the beginning of long term effects of COVID-19

The ever changing situation surrounding COVID-19, the numbers of patients being diverted from other hospitals in the region, the constant monitoring of resources and supplies and continuing to be an effective quality health care facility are variables ever present on the minds of Sheridan Memorial Hospital leadership.   

SMH leadership meet daily to conduct a “huddle” and keep each other informed of the status of bed availability, COVID-19 patients, PPE supplies, staff health and availability, and many other variables. 

Currently no services or surgical procedures are at risk of being delayed or postponed at SMH due to COVID-19. 

“We are a full service hospital,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Addlesperger said.  

The hospital continues to operate while also continually monitoring the COVID-19 situation and the facility continues to see a heavy volume of patients outside of the realm of COVID-19, CEO Mike McCafferty said. 

When the hospital postponed elective surgeries, it was done due to the shortage in PPE supplies throughout the nation. Staff reserved the existing PPE within the hospital in the event of a surge in coronavirus patients in the Sheridan region.

Those supply chains have begun to return, Addlesperger said. Elective surgeries are being performed. Although, should the patient return a positive COVID-19 test, the elective surgery will very likely be postponed until the patient recovers. 

COVID-19 positive patients requiring urgent or emergency surgeries will proceed into the operating room regardless, according to hospital leadership.   

“We have processes and procedures for taking care of positive patients that need urgent or emergent services,” Addlesperger said.

Addlesperger said they are seeing negative long term effects in some patients who have recovered from COVID-19.

According to Addlesperger, those long term effects include pulmonary scarring, (the thickening of tissue around and between the air sacs in the lungs), dermatologic manifestations, cardiac problems, chronic fatigue and chronic shortness of breath. 

“We don’t know what that’s going to be like a year from now,” Addlesperger said. “Are they going to get better or have heart problems, heart failure? If you have a bad case, that can haunt you. There’s just a big array; people are losing their hearing, losing their sense of smell and we don’t know if that’s going to come back.” 

Chief Nursing Officer Barb Hespen said staff members report that some COVID-19 recovered patients are reporting nerve pain.   

“We just don’t know if those things are going to resolve over time or not,” Addlesperger said.

Although medical professionals are working around the clock, there is still too much we don’t know about the COVID-19, Addlesperger said. 

But knowledge of the coronavirus is advancing, Addlesperger said. A recent retrospective study found that Blood type O may offer some protection against COVID-19 infection. 

According to The American Society of Hematology, researchers compared Danish health registry data from more than 473,000 individuals tested for COVID-19 to data from a control group of more than 2.2 million people from the general population. Among the COVID-19 positive, they found fewer people with blood type O and more people with A, B, and AB types.

The results of the study suggest that people with blood types A, B, or AB may be more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than people with type O. The researchers did not find any significant difference in rate of infection between A, B, and AB types. 

A link to this study can be found here.