Dale Weeks is thought to have been an indirect victim of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The retired Iowa school administrator died in late November after being diagnosed with a blood-borne disease unrelated to the coronaviruses.
His daughters think he could have survived if he had been admitted to a large medical center immediately.
He stayed at the small hospital inNewton because the bigger facilities couldn't give him a bed. The hospitals in Iowa have been overwhelmed with patients for months.
Jenifer Owenson, one of the four children of Weeks, said that it was frustrating that people who weren't vaccinations were getting it.
The town of Seymour was where Weeks lived. He thought it might be a side effect of a flu shot and a booster shot. He was admitted to the hospital in Centerville on the night of Nov. 1, where he was diagnosed with sepsis. Owenson said that his father and wife were told they had no beds.
The staff called for hours to find an open bed. Illinois was the closest one they could find. They found a spot at the hospital inNewton by midday the next day. He was taken to the hospital.
Dale Weeks died on November 28. He is surrounded by his children, his wife, and his children.
Owenson said the staff at the hospital did their best to help her father. The family repeatedly asked if he could be transferred to a more advanced hospital after his infection failed to resolve. She said that they were told he was on a list of degrees of severity, but his number had not come up.
She said that he was aware of the situation. He was angry. He wanted something to be done.
He was taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals by ambulance after 15 days. The doctors there decided that he needed to have a procedure to clear out a severe infection of an arteries near his stomach.
Almost 2 million Iowans are fully vaccined a year after the first COVID shot. There is still more work to be done to end the epidemic.
They said he had no choice. Julia Simanski said that Owenson needed to have the surgery or he would die in a few days.
His daughters said that the surgery lasted 17 hours. The family was told by the surgeon that it was one of the worst infections she had ever seen. His decline was not reversed by a second operation. His organs were failing. He died at the age of 78.
The hospitals acknowledged the frustration caused by hospital crowding, but declined to comment on Weeks.
Hospitals across the country are dealing with traumas and experiencing multiple types of illness due to the increased number of COVID-19 cases and spread of the omicron variant. There is a reduced number of staff to care for patients. These challenges can cause delays in care for patients.
Unvaccinated people make up a large percentage of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported Wednesday that almost all of the people hospitalized in Iowa for COVID-19 were not fully vaccine-vaccinated. 30% of Iowa adults are not fully vaccine protected.
The University of Iowa Hospitals is often close to full, according to Laura Shoemaker.
She wrote in an email to the Des Moines Register that it was not uncommon for them to operate at 90-95% capacity. We have over 800 beds and as of today we have over 800 inns. As patients are discharged and new patients are admitted, that number goes up and down.
The University of Iowa recently gained approval to build an additional hospital in North Liberty.
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped.
He was a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was a math and science teacher and principal in the Seymour district before he retired.
His family wrote in his obituary that he would be remembered as a kind, loyal, and humble person. He could be counted on to offer help, say "yes" to a request for a favor, and assume the best in others.
His family will never know if the epidemic shortened his life. He might have died even if he had been admitted to a large medical center immediately. Simanski said it would have given them a better chance.
Tony Leys covers health care. He can be reached at tleys@registermedia.com.
An Iowan dies after 15 days of waiting for a hospital bed.
