Jazzy Gonzales turned 2 the day after she came off a ventilator.
She was among 20 infants and children at the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital who were being kept alive on respirators just over a week ago as RSV, flu and COVID-19 infections swept across the state, swelling many hospitals beyond capacity.
Public health officials for weeks have asked state residents to increase mask wearing and handwashing, and to get vaccinated, remain socially distanced and stay home if they’re sick as hospitals struggle with a surge of patients and a lack of supplies.
dr David Scrase, the state’s acting health secretary, called the situation “chilling.”
“We’re continuing to face challenges with our ability to manage and care for all our sick New Mexicans,” he said, describing New Mexico’s burdened hospital system as “grim.”
Contributing to the spread of the coronavirus’s highly contagious omicron variants is a lower rate of inoculations with the omicron-specific vaccine.
Department of Health data indicates 1.5 million adults have received at least one vaccination against COVID-19 and 1.3 million have completed the primary series of shots. So far, however, only 278,081 residents have returned for the omicron booster, which experts say is effective against prominent strains that have overcome immunity from other vaccinations and illness from the virus.
David Gonzales, the chief medical officer of Christ St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, said he believes people are suffering from what he calls “vaccine fatigue” — not just for COVID-19 but also for the flu.
“I’m willing to bet influenza numbers are higher than any numbers I have seen in this hospital. We haven’t had a flu season like this in over 10 years,” he said.
Melissa Gonzales, Jazzy’s mother, said after spending more than three weeks in the hospital — eight days with her daughter intubated — she wants the state to return to the social protocols in place at the height of the pandemic.
“This RSV is really, really hurting these kids, and it’s so heartbreaking,” she said Thursday from a hospital room. “I’d go to take a shower, and it’d be room after room after room of silence with kids on ventilators. Those guidelines need to come back. It’s not worth our children’s lives because we want to be back to normal. We’re not back to normal.”
RSV, flu and COVID-19 have created an alarming number of children and infants requiring high-flow oxygen, and patients have multiple viruses at one time, said Dr. Anna Duran, associate chief medical officer at the UNM Children’s Hospital.
Duran said typically two to four patients in her hospital’s 20-bed unit are on ventilators.
“Today, this morning, we had 22 patients in our ICU, and 20 of those patients had breathing tubes or were intubated,” she said in a recent news conference.
One of those children was Jazzy.
Jazzy’s mother said she rushed her to an emergency room after the child developed a fever and suddenly went limp.
“She was burning with fever,” Gonzales said. “She couldn’t stand or sit up by herself, hold her head up or keep her eyes open. She was breathing short breaths but very fast.”
By the time they reached the emergency room, the child’s oxygen level dropped to 78. After a touch-and-go night, Gonzales was told Jazzy would have to be placed on a ventilator for survival.
Her husband, Christopher Gonzales, returned home to care for the couples’ other three children, ages 10, 9 and 8.
“I wasn’t trying to cry. My husband was being strong. We were literally watching our lives begin to crash around us. Then we called in the family members,” Melissa Gonzales said.
“Those next eight days were so hard, every day waking up to the breathing machine,” she added. “I didn’t understand the machine. I didn’t understand any of it. I knew the machine was keeping her breathing and alive, and it made me thank God for this technology.”
Hospitals are also seeing an increase in adults with RSV, COVID-19 and flu, Duran said, adding the UNM health care system is “significantly over their 100 percent licensed capacity.”
“At any given moment in the UNM health system, there may be 90 to 100 adults and 10 to 20 children waiting in emergency rooms for a bed,” she said.
Scrase said health officials had been watching a downward trend in COVID-19 cases, but that number again appears to be trending upward, and northwestern New Mexico continues to be more severely impacted.
“It’s recommended that they be wearing masks and taking extra precautions there because of the high levels there,” Scrase said.
Melissa Gonzales said she feels people aren’t taking the warnings seriously and want the state to implement preventive measures again.
Alyssa Anaya, whose 3-year-old twins, Jonnah and Jossiah Anaya, recently were released from Christ St. Vincent after bouts with RSV, said she also feels people have become complacent.
She said she took her children to an urgent care clinic Nov. 26 when they became sick with high fevers resistant to ibuprofen and Tylenol. Jonnah was immediately transported to Christ St. Vincent by ambulance and placed on forced oxygen, she said. Three days later, his brother’s oxygen level dropped to 82. She took him to the emergency room when she noticed his stomach pulling in so severely with each breath she could see his rib cage.
“We were in the ER for seven hours before they got us a bed,” Anaya said.
“The whole waiting room was so full. There were kids coughing. Adults coughing. I didn’t even feel comfortable keeping him there,” she said.
“I’m very frustrated,” she added. “So many people are sick, and I’ve heard from so many moms whose children had RSV and flu at the same time. You would think they would close the day cares and schools for cleaning. Parents aren’t really taking this seriously, and this can kill your kid. I’m pretty sure they got this at day care. You pick your kids up, and kids are coughing all over.”
Gonzales, who works as a secretary at Raymond A. Gabaldon Elementary in Los Lunas, said she thought schools, many now shut down for the holidays, should have temporarily closed sooner to better manage illnesses.
“I think schools need to be shut down. They don’t need to be open right now. My colleagues told me seven teachers are out sick, and only a few kids were present anyway,” she said.
Scrase urges children and adults to get omicron boosters and flu shots.
“The new booster is effective against all variants,” he said of the newest COVID-19 vaccine. “The more vaccines you get and the more boosters you get, the less likely you are to be hospitalized and die.”
Hospitalizations and deaths are increasing in New Mexico, with state data showing 185 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday, including nine on ventilators.
Health care workers continue to be plagued with a high rate of transmission, Scrase said.
“The situation with hospitals is grim,” he said. “I don’t really think COVID has declared itself as a seasonal virus yet. Clearly, from a hospital perspective and a hospital crisis perspective, COVID really has been a winter virus that causes the most problems.”
David Gonzales said while his hospital is nearing capacity, health care workers there have managed to keep a few beds open.
“It puts great stress not only on the physicians but especially on the nursing staff. They’re our front lines with the patients 24/7. It’s dramatic,” he said. “One area that concerns me is the mental well-being of our health care staff.”
The high number of children in the pediatric unit is especially troubling for staff, Gonzales said.
“And there’s shortages. There is a shortage of albuterol. Resources are scarce across the country. There’s a shortage of portable oxygen. There’s a shortage of nasal cannulas. A shortage of anti-fever medication. That puts a lot of stress on the system.”
dr Jennifer Chittum, a pediatric specialist at Christ St. Vincent’s Arroyo Chamiso Pediatric Center, said the increase in patients is challenging, but she thinks health care professionals are meeting patient demands.
“I think we can all agree that the past two years have been challenging for everyone,” she said. “The limitation on resources makes it stressful to all of us, but rest assured that we love our patients and families and continue to provide the highest care possible.”
Melissa Gonzales said her daughter was removed from the ventilator Dec. 10 and has an expected release date of Dec. 21
“Immediately after they took her off the breathing machine, they moved her into another room. That place scared the death out of me. It looked like the old COVID rooms where there was no more room. You could hear other babies crying and coughing.
“There were these blue curtains, like paper curtains, curtain after curtain and curtain,” she said. “Little rooms with no light. [Jazzy] spent her birthday there.”
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