Covid-19 El Paso Quarantine Death On The Ward – 2020-08-25
El Paso
Covid-19 Quarantine Death On The Ward – 2020-08-25
By Karen Strickholm
August 2020 – “Contracted Covid-19. Bad. Sent to isolation COVID ward in El Paso (Texas) hospital, during that city’s peak pandemic moment – you may remember it in the national news. Spent one month in COVID acute care on 15 liters oxygen, mobile tractor trailer morgues out back, FEMA tents crammed into overflow spaces, Code Blue called near daily all around me, on bi-pap to breath. It’s touch and go. Too weak to stand, too weak to walk. In-dwelling foley installed, remaining in place for next three years.”
Aug 25, 2020 KINDRED HOSPITAL EL PASO
Out Of The Ward, Onward
Karen Strickholm, KINDRED HOSPITAL EL PASO
Out Of The Ward, Onward
so what’s been going on is i almost died of covid i got really sick and from the last time i updated everybody i just uh i don’t even know where i left, things off i had um pneumonia and septic shock and that was about 12 weeks ago it put me in the hospital and then um was recovering from that pretty well actually and was in a specialty hospital for my wounds which were being treated aggressively and really responding, and while i was there i got coded and i was transferred into quarantine at the hospital in el paso and from there um i went downhill very fast and uh almost died i was on 12 liters of oxygen and pretty critical i’m making a video i’ll talk to you later and um and that’s what happened so while i was in there it was very intense you could hear the other patients but you knew about them but you never see them and you never meet them so i hear about them from the nurses so for example there was one man who was 91 and he could only talk to his daughters on facetime on a on a you know tablet that the nurse had to hold for him and um i i was you know there when he coded next door to me and heard him die i mean basically heard him code not die but about two weeks in and there was another woman who was about my age she was struggling pretty hard and they finally decided to put her on a ventilator and as they were moving her to the icu she coded and i heard her die also it was really intense and i myself was fairly critical luckily at the time when they decided ventilators were not the best thing um so i didn’t have to do that but i was on 12 liters of oxygen which is crazy i had pulmonary edema and this is all following having you know septic shock and pneumonia for christ’s sake so the dying part is getting really old i’m now on all kinds of drip antibiotics you can see that that’s the drip i’m in a step down hospital so it is a hospital it’s for acute care you can see the wall with all this stuff on it and uh it’s my bed and my strength is beyond gone I today had physical therapy and i could stand for um 60 seconds was my max so it’s all a pill from there strength wise um i’m glad i have the opportunity to update everybody and i’m sick of this almost dying it’s getting so old but i made it through and and the thing that a lot of people say to me now is congratulations on making it because you know what a lot of people don’t and this did not need to be i did not need to get covered nobody did you know this is just massive public health mismanagement this is what this is so everybody stay safe out there wear your masks please for yourself and for others and know that this is a serious life-threatening virus it’s not just your lungs even though it you know definitely impacts the lungs um it affects the whole body and um recovery can be long and difficult um i don’t know what mine’s gonna look like but uh onward right if you’re able to help me financially with my medical expenses which are ongoing that can be done at uh paypal dot m e forward slash karen strickhlom where there’s no fee or if you’d like to post a note and pay a minor fee you can donate at gofundme.com forward slash help hyphen karen hyphen block hyphen again thank you for your help really it makes a huge difference you just have no friggin idea how many medical expenses there are when you’re really sick it’s just it’s friggin endless man all right everybody take care i will talk to you soon
bye bye