Batesville, Ind., hospital seeks help from Cincinnati in treating surge of COVID-19 patients
Margaret Mary Community Hospital’s 25 beds are normally mostly empty. But starting the week of March 20, the rural facility was filled with both confirmed and suspected cases.
Dr. Desmond Wah is used to being the only physician treating patients at the rural Margaret Mary Community hospital, which services two counties in Batesville, Ind. The facilities 25 beds are normally only about half full, but starting the week of March 20, Dr. Wah found himself scrambling to treat an influx of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases with limited staff, equipment, and medicine.
His staff turned to Cincinnati-area hospitals for help with sedating patients when they ran out of their usual anesthesia, and they have been transferring patients here who are too sick to handle locally.
