Kurt Papenfus, a physician in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, began to feel ill around Halloween.
Papenfus is the lone full-time emergency room medical professional in the town of 900, not far from the Kansas line.
” I’m chief of staff and medical director of everything at Keefe Memorial Hospital presently in Cheyenne County, Colorado,” he stated.
With Papenfus ill, the medical facility rushed to find a replacement. As coronavirus cases in rural Colorado, and the state’s Eastern Plains particularly, rise to extraordinary levels, Papenfus’ disease is a test case for how the pandemic affects the vulnerable rural healthcare system.
” He is the primary guy. And it is a very large difficulty,” said Stella Worley, CEO of the medical facility.
If she could not discover someone to complete while he was ill, Worley may need to divert injury and emergency situation clients nearly 40 miles north to Burlington.
” Time is life sometimes,” she said. “And that is not something you ever wish to do.”
‘ The ‘Rona Monster Is a Really Nasty Monster’
As deaths from the coronavirus have actually gone beyond 250,000 in the U.S., brand-new information reveal the pandemic has actually been especially lethal in rural areas– it’s taking lives in those locations at a rate apparently almost 3.5 times higher than in cosmopolitan communities.
About 63 people in Cheyenne County have been identified with COVID-19, most of them in the past 3 weeks.
Papenfus, a vibrant 63- year-old, was released after a nine-day remain at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver, and he aspired to sound the alarm about the illness he calls the ‘rona.
” The ‘rona monster is a really nasty beast, and it is not enjoyable. It has a very mean mood. It loves a fight, and it loves to keep following you,” Papenfus stated.
He isn’t sure where he picked it up however believes it may have been on a journey east in October.
” There are individuals literally like inches from me, and we’re all packed like sardines in this train,” Papenfus said. “And I’m going, ‘Oh, my God, I am in a superspreader occasion right now.'”
An airport spokeswoman decreased to comment about Papenfus’ experience.
A week later, the symptoms hit.
Once in the hospital, chest X-rays revealed he ‘d developed pneumonia.
” Guy, I didn’t get a tap on the shoulder by ‘rona, I got a huge viral load,” he texted a press reporter, sending out pictures of his chest scans that program large, nontransparent, white areas of his lung. Just a week earlier, his chest X-ray was normal, he stated.
Back in Cheyenne Wells, Dr. Christine Connolly picked up a few of Papenfus’ shifts, although she had to drive 10 hours each way from Fort Worth, Texas, to do it. She stated the hospital staff is spread out thin already.
” It’s not simply the physicians; it’s the nurses, you know. It’s tough to get extra nurses,” she said. “There’s not a great deal of spares of anything out that far.”
Besides himself, six other staff members– out of a staff of 62 at Keefe Memorial– likewise recently got a favorable test, Papenfus stated.
Medical Facilities on the Plains frequently send their sickest patients to bigger medical facilities in Denver and Colorado Springs. With so numerous individuals around the area getting ill, Connolly is getting anxious medical facilities could be overwhelmed. Healthcare leaders produced a brand-new command system to move clients around the state to make more room, but Connolly said there is a limitation.
” It’s dangerous when the health centers in the cities fill, and when it becomes a problem for us to send out,” she said.
‘ Bank Burglars Use Masks Out There’
The impact of Papenfus’ absence extends throughout Colorado’s Eastern Plains. He generally worked shifts an hour to the northwest, at Lincoln Community Medical Facility in Hugo.
” So those numbers are substantial,” Stansbury stated. He stated that since mid-November about a half-dozen health center staffers had evaluated positive for the infection; they think that outbreak is unassociated to Papenfus’ case.
Lincoln Community Medical facility is ready once again to take recuperating clients. Financial resources in rural health care are always tight, and accepting brand-new clients would assist.
” We have the staff to do that, so long as my personnel doesn’t get ravaged with the disease,” Stansbury said.
Rural communities are particularly susceptible. Residents tend to suffer from underlying health conditions that can make COVID-19 more severe, consisting of high rates of smoking, high blood pressure and weight problems. And Brock Slabach of the National Rural Health Association said 61%of rural health centers do not have an extensive care system.
” This is an extraordinary situation that we discover ourselves in right now,” Slabach said. “I don’t believe that in our lifetimes we’ve seen anything like what is developing in regards to rise capacity.”
A number of hours east of Cheyenne Wells, COVID-19 just recently struck Gove County, Kansas, hard.
The county’s emergency situation management director, the regional hospital CEO and more than 50 medical personnel members tested favorable.
Papenfus stressed about his house county and its odds of eradicating the virus.
” The western prairie isn’t mask country,” he said.
Because being released from the medical facility, Papenfus has had a rocky recovery. His spouse, Joanne, drove him back to Cheyenne Wells, using an N95 mask and gloves, while he rode in the back on oxygen, coughing through the three-hour drive.
When back in your home after that preliminary nine-day stay, Papenfus hunkered down, with the periodic journey outside to socialize with his pet falcon.
However a week after going house, he started having nightly fevers.
Finding a replacement for Papenfus at Keefe has been hard. The healthcare facility is dealing with services that supply alternative physicians, however these days, with the coronavirus roaring across the nation, the competitors is strong.
” They’re truly scrambling to get protection,” Papenfus texted from his hospital bed. “Whole county can’t wait for my return but this illness has truly taken me down.”
He said he was now at Day 35 from his very first symptoms, depending on his health center bed in Denver, “questioning when I’ll ever get back.” Papenfus kept in mind that COVID-19 has impacted his crucial thinking which he will need to be cleared cognitively to go back to work. He said he understands he will not have the physical stamina to get back to full responsibility “for a while, if ever.”
This story is from a reporting collaboration that includes Colorado Public Radio, NPR and KHN.
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