{"id":141286,"date":"2021-07-21T17:03:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T01:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=141286"},"modified":"2021-07-22T15:49:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T23:49:46","slug":"news-im-sorry-but-its-too-late-alabama-doctor-on-treating-unvaccinated-dying-covid-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=141286","title":{"rendered":"News: \u2018I\u2019m sorry, but it\u2019s too late\u2019: Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine. The vaccinated patient, she said, just needed a little oxygen and is expected to fully recover. Some of the others are dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,\u201d wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post Sunday. \u201cOne of the last things they do before they\u2019re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I\u2019m sorry, but it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

…For the first year and a half of the pandemic, Cobia and hundreds of other Alabama physicians caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients worked themselves to the bone trying to save as many as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 2020 and early 2021, when the vaccine wasn\u2019t available, it was just tragedy after tragedy after tragedy,\u201d Cobia told AL.com this week. \u201cYou know, so many people that did all the right things, and yet still came in, and were critically ill and died.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the United States, COVID is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated, according to the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Alabama, state officials report 94% of COVID hospital patients and 96% of Alabamians who have died of COVID since April were not fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few days later when I call time of death,\u201d continued Cobia on Facebook, \u201cI hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey cry. And they tell me they didn\u2019t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn\u2019t get as sick. They thought it was \u2018just the flu\u2019. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can\u2019t. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 11,400 Alabamians have died of COVID so far, but midway through 2021, caring for COVID patients is a different story than it was in the beginning. Cobia said it\u2019s different mentally and emotionally to care for someone who could have prevented their disease but chose not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of go into it thinking, \u2018Okay, I\u2019m not going to feel bad for this person, because they make their own choice,\u2019\u201d Cobia said. \u201cBut then you actually see them, you see them face to face, and it really changes your whole perspective, because they\u2019re still just a person that thinks that they made the best decision that they could with the information that they have, and all the misinformation that\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now all you really see is their fear and their regret. And even though I may walk into the room thinking, \u2018Okay, this is your fault, you did this to yourself,\u2019 when I leave the room, I just see a person that\u2019s really suffering, and that is so regretful for the choice that they made.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n