SHAWNEE, Kan. — The COVID-19 pandemic has brought full hospitals and critically low staffing levels to the Kansas City area, a reality that Mariane Weinard had to face.
“All I could think of was, what happens if something happens to me?” Mariane Weinand said.
When a medical emergency struck, Weinand says she felt stranded.
“It didn’t dawn on me until late when I was in the waiting room thinking that this is surreal, this is not normal, that I know something is wrong, potentially could be dying and there’s nowhere for me to go,” she said.
It happened when she was out with her daughter.
“The next thing I heard was Emma telling me, ‘Why is Mommy shaking so bad?’ and they rushed Emma out of the room. The best way to describe it is somewhere between a seizure and a heart attack,” Weinand said.
“I was extraordinarily scared,” she said. “My dad and my grandpa died of heart disease.”
Help came and Weinand was put on a stretcher, but ‘Where to next?’ is the question many ambulance companies in the metro are battling with.
Weinand detailed how two hospitals weren’t accepting patients, a scenario happening frequently across the Kansas City area.
“Our EMS crews are continually having challenges letting the patient choose where they go versus taking them to a place that can care for them,” Ryan Jacobsen, Johnson County EMS Medical Director, said. “We are struggling with those decisions every day, it puts the EMS in a very awkward, hard position.”
Weinand said while she did get initial contact, she still had to sit in the waiting room for hours before deciding to go to a different hospital.
“Unless you really have a true emergency, the hospital isn’t the best place,” she said. “Beyond COVID, the people who are having a heart attack and strokes and seizures can’t get the help they need.”
Director of Emergency Services with Johnson County MED-ACT J. Paul Davis provided a statement to KSHB 41 News.
“Making critical decisions is what we do every day. With this pandemic, we’ve been fortunate to implement contingency plans that were already in place, and are meant to protect the integrity of our patient care coordination," Davis said. "Even though during this time we may need to assist our patients in making the appropriate hospital destination choices, this is something we’re accustomed to. We do it daily, under normal conditions."
Davis said EMS is taking a collaborative approach to adapt to the situation.
"Our contingency plans take into account alternatives that could be necessary for operations and staffing. We are very happy to have great collaborative relationships across the region. We are prepared to act in the most prudent manner that provides the maximum benefit to our patients," Davis said.
