In the News

Dr. Haylee Veazey, who works in emergency and primary care for Hennepin Healthcare, says the numbers are scary. Malcolm called them alarming. Veazey says more sick patients are coming into the hospital now than earlier this year.

“We want to make sure that people aren’t complacent, that they stay vigilant,” said Dr. Andrew Laudenbach. “That they keep wearing masks, they do their best to avoid large gatherings.”

ER doctor James Miner has treated hundreds of COVID patients and says he’s proof that simple precautions can be effective.

As an Emergency Physician at Hennepin Healthcare, Dr. Andrew Laudenbach is urging people to consider those impacts as critical patients will sometimes take weeks to recover.

Doctors at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and other safety-net hospitals around the country joined in calls for increased public compliance. Dr. James Miner, HCMC’s chief of emergency medicine, said he can see the gradual erosion of compliance that occurs at sporting events and other activities.

“If this continues on this trend, those numbers could be staggering,” says Dr. Andrew Laudenbach with Hennepin Healthcare.

“This is such an important topic this year, especially because a lot of the coping skills that we’re used to, especially being with family during the holidays, it’s going to be a challenge for many of us,” Dr. Talee Vang with Hennepin Health Care said.

“We encourage the use of hand sanitizer,” Dr. Jon Cole, an HCMC ER physician who runs the poison control center, said.

“Bed capacity is not our challenge in Minnesota, it is keeping our hospitals and health care systems staffed,” said Jennifer DeCubellis, chief executive at Minneapolis-based Hennepin Healthcare.

Dr. Jon Cole, an ER physician at HCMC, suffered an infection early in the pandemic along with his wife and said it was challenging to get through it while caring for their four children, who also were infected.

According to Hennepin Healthcare Clinical Supervisor Nan Lomen, RN, there have been 12,000-61,000 deaths annually since 2010.

“You might be thinking, ‘The flu is not as deadly as smallpox or our current pandemic,’” says Lomen. “You would be right, but influenza and COVID-19 are illnesses that can cause severe illness and even death.”

John Lauritsen spoke to Dr. Kate Hust from Hennepin Healthcare about the trends in virus spread following the President’s announcement he has COVID-19.

“Hopefully it does bring light to the fact that this is a disease that is still present and unfortunately growing in some cases,” said Dr. Kate Hust.

Dr. John Hick says the risk of severe COVID-19 disease for anyone Trump’s age is high.

As COVID-19 spread globally in March, Dr. Deepti Pandita lost sleep knowing the inevitable next steps. To keep patients safe, Hennepin Healthcare would need to quickly shut down elective clinic operations, cutting off vulnerable patients from essential medical care and equally valuable human touch.

Matthew Prekker, critical care physician, Hennepin County Medical Center: Things during the workday now feel a bit more like the normal conditions that we remember from 2019. This coronavirus is still everywhere and we still assume everyone we meet has it in the hospital and we’re still seeing a lot of folks come in with viral infections.

Dr. Stacene Maroushek said staying outdoors is a safer way to celebrate Hallloween.

Dr. Krishnan Subrahmanian says there is a difference between recreational screen time and interactive.

Dr. Nyan Pyae thought he was going to the hospital, getting some oxygen and coming back home. What resulted, however, is one of the longest hospital stays for a COVID-19 patient in Minnesota at 106 days.

Dr. Nyan Pyae said he is appreciating life and will never forget what the HCMC caregivers did: “Without them, I would have been gone. I’m very grateful.”