Amid a bed shortage, workers at Harris Health's Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston had to airlift an 11-month-old girl with COVID-19 to a pediatric center 170 miles away in Temple, Texas, the health system confirmed to Becker's Aug. 9.
The girl, Ava Amira Rivera, was taken to the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital Aug. 5 after having seizures and struggling to breathe, The Washington Post reported. She tested positive for the virus at the hospital.
Harris Health spokesperson Bryan McLeod said the girl had to be transported from the 207-bed Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital to Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's Medical Center in Temple because Lyndon B. Johnson does not have inpatient pediatrics.
"Children who come to the emergency department there needing hospitalization are typically transferred to another area hospital," said Mr. McLeod. "Our transfer center team reached out across the area searching for an appropriate level of care and found none available for receiving the transfer. So, the team began searching further across the state."
Once Ava arrived in Temple, she was intubated but stable, Dominic Lucia, MD, chief medical officer at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's, told the Post. She improved during her hospital stay and has been discharged.
Ava's story comes as hospitals in the U.S. grapple with staffing and capacity amid a rise in COVID-19 cases fueled by the delta variant. On Aug. 5, for instance, Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced its adult hospital would reschedule surgeries that can be delayed amid a rise in cases. In Houston, Harris Health System said it would temporarily close two clinics Aug. 9 to boost staffing at its hospitals as COVID-19 cases rise.
As of Aug. 9, Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital is at 100 percent intensive care unit utilization (63 percent being COVID-19 cases), said Mr. McLeod. Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital intensive care unit is at 95 percent capacity, with 27 percent of utilization being COVID-19 patients.