SwedishAmerican in Rockford has 2 open ICU beds as COVID-19 numbers remain high

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our newsletter

ROCKFORD — The number of people being treated for coronavirus at UW Health SwedishAmerican Hospital has fallen from last week’s record numbers, but doctors say nearly all intensive care unit beds remain full.

Swedes was treating 99 patients with COVID-19 as of Thurday morning, doctors said during a discussion with Mayor Tom McNamara on Facebook Live. That’s down from 108 last week. This week’s patients include 22 people requiring treatment in the ICU.

COVID patients have overwhelmed the health care system, and some patients who would ordinarily be cared for in the ICU are instead being treated in intermediate care wards, said Dr. James Cole, trauma medical director and surgeon in chief at Swedes.

“The people presently in our ICU are truly and unequivocally the very sickest of the sick in all of Rockford,” Cole said.

Related: ‘Forget the politics,’ go get vaccinated, McNamara says

There were also six patients in the ICU who were not sick with the coronavirus, meaning as of Thursday morning two of the 30 ICU beds were available at the hospital.

“In this most recent surge there really isn’t a day where we haven’t been pretty close to maxed out,” said Dr. Mike Polizzotto, chief medical officer at Swedes.

(story continues below photo)

Approximately 90% of the patients in the ICU have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, Polizzotto said. About 82% of all patients hospitalized as Swedes have not been vaccinated.

“This is a pandemic largely of the unvaccinated,” Cole said. “It’s a younger, unimmunized group of people that continues to engage with everybody else that’s unimmunized, that engages with other groups of people, and the virus just keeps spreading.”

Related: ‘Our health care system is exhausted’: Rockford hospital treats record number of COVID patients

The Facebook Live discussion was also held to urge residents to receive the vaccine, as well as answer questions about its effectiveness, the effectiveness of masks and possible vaccine side effects. Cole pleaded with people to get their information from reputable sources, making a point to respond to the common refrain of “I’ve done my own research.”

“What do you have a lab in your basement with petri dishes and human culture microscopes? And they’re like, ‘no, I’ve read stuff on the internet,'” he said. “I tell them reading stuff on the internet may be OK for a junior high term paper, but it’s not considered research by our standards.”

The vast majority of people recover from COVID. According to John Hopkins University research, 98.4% of people in the U.S. survive a known case of the virus.

That high recovery rate should not be read as a reason to skip vaccination, Cole said. Survivors can have months of rehabilitation in the worst cases, and getting vaccinated helps health care workers who have struggled to provide the care patients need because they’re overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.

“Now we’re having to essentially water down our resources because so many COVID patients are at the hospital consuming so many resources,” he said. “Frankly, I think people are selfish if they only think about themselves and not the community that they live in. Your choices impact other people, including the community that you live in.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.