Photo: Lange Funeral Home and Crematory
An Iowa family blames unvaccinated COVID-19 patients for the death of their loved one, who died after waiting weeks for a hospital bed.
Dale Weeks, a retired school superintendent, was diagnosed with sepsis in November and hoped to get treatment before the holidays, theWashington Postreported.
As COVID-19 cases around the country surged, finding a hospital bed at a large medical facility in Iowa became difficult for the 78-year-old.
Instead, Weeks was taken to a small rural hospital for treatment. He had to wait 15 days to be transferred over to a large hospital with better treatment options.
“It was terribly frustrating being told, ‘There’s not a bed yet,'” said Jennifer Owenson, one of Weeks’ four children.
“All of us were talking multiple times a day, ‘Why can’t we get him a bed?’ There was this logjam to get him in anywhere.”
By the time Weeks was able to have surgery, his condition started to deteriorate and he died on Nov. 28 of complications related to surgery, according to thePost.
“The frustrating thing was not that we wanted him to get care that others weren’t getting, but that he didn’t get care when he needed it. And when he did get it, it was too late,” his son Anthony Weeks said. “The question comes up of: ‘Who was in those beds?’ If it’s people who areunvaccinated with COVID, then that’s the part where it really hurts.”
“The thing that bothers me the most is people’s selfish decision not to get vaccinated and the failure to see how this affects a greater group of people. That’s the part that’s really difficult to swallow.”
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source: people.com
