Running out of room: St. Louis hospitals forced to turn away patients from rural areas as COVID [View all]

Running out of room: St. Louis hospitals forced to turn away patients from rural areas as COVID cases soar


HOUSTON, Mo. — A 48-year-old married father of five, worried about his worsening headaches, walked Monday afternoon into the small emergency room at Texas County Memorial Hospital.

Nurses discovered he had a quickly growing and dangerous mass in the middle of his brain, said hospital CEO Wesley Murray. The man needed surgery at a high-level trauma center.

For the next 25 hours, frantic nurses called every Missouri health center they could. They even called hospitals as far as Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Omaha, Nebraska, Murray said, but they were unable to find an intensive care bed open.

The man was losing consciousness. His blood pressure was increasing. Finally, a University of Iowa hospital was able to handle his case, sending a small plane to pick him up at nearby Fort Leonard Wood.

Read more: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/state-and-regional/running-out-of-room-st-louis-hospitals-forced-to-turn-away-patients-from-rural-areas/article_0e17fc93-3e67-5a49-9a33-0b346618b5c3.html