Window into virus surge: Death, recovery at Houston hospital - Chron

HOUSTON (AP) — A few weeks after more than 100 people attended her husband's funeral, the widow herself was on the brink of death.

Ten people, each in two layers of protective equipment, surrounded her hospital bed.

At least 10 people who were at the funeral later developed coronavirus symptoms, according to her daughter, who fell sick herself.

Nearly 80% of the state's hospital beds are in use, and intensive care units are filling up in some of the nation’s biggest cities, including San Antonio and Houston, where leaders are warning their health facilities could become overwhelmed in the coming days.

"We’re going to get into situations like Italy did, like Spain did, like New York did just a couple of months ago,” said Varon, board chair at United Memorial Medical Center, a small north Houston hospital.

Now, 88 of 117 beds are devoted to such patients — and Varon says the hospital may soon turn over the entire facility to treating those with the virus.

When he isn’t seeing patients or trying to obtain more hospital supplies, he does media interviews to encourage people to wear masks and take the virus seriously.

“People need to see this so they can understand and won’t do stupid things,” he said, standing in the widow’s hospital room.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms.

The 51-year-old says she cared for her adult son when he got the virus.

Robinson says she was held in an urgent-care center for two days before being moved to United Memorial because the first available hospital beds were in Corpus Christi and Lufkin, cities at least a two-hour drive away.

Texas leaders say there are still 12,000 available hospital beds statewide — about 23% of total beds.

But Robinson’s case shows that even if the sprawling state still has spare capacity, that may not accommodate people in cities where the virus is surging.

Asked what she would tell people outside the hospital about the virus, she said: "The only thing I can do is to live to be that example for them.

United Memorial, already near capacity, could soon be filled, Varon says, as he braces to see what Fourth of July celebrations might bring.