Local ICU doctor discusses pain and progress in the pandemic – WDSU New Orleans

LCMC Health is marking the two-year anniversary of identifying its first COVID-19 patient. University Medical Center, which is a part of the health system, would soon become a Ground Zero of sorts, in the city's fight against coronavirus.Dr. Jeffrey Elder told WDSU that in late March 2020, LCMC hospitals treated a total of 500 COVID-19 patients at one time. On Monday, that number dropped to just a dozen. "While this isn't over, we can live our lives," Elder said. "We can protect our most vulnerable population and we can do the things we want to do while living with this virus long-term."Elder said the city has not seen a dramatic increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 after celebrating Mardi Gras two weeks ago."Hopefully, those (increases) get lower, have a shorter duration, are more spread out over time and this really does become an endemic virus," Elder said.He cautioned that Louisiana is not there yet, warning that the state needs to boost vaccination rates to avoid another surge in cases.Dr. David Janz runs the Intensive Care Unit at UMC. He told WDSU that the pandemic tested his team like never before."Unprecedented is probably the only word I can use to describe the feeling," Janz said. "The rate at which patients were coming in, how quickly they were coming in, how sick they were, it was just overwhelming. If we hadn't spent weeks to months anticipating this and planning for it, I could easily imagine that it would have been much more chaotic than it was."Janz said that planning helped save lives."We've had some of the best ICU outcomes with COVID patients of a lot of hospitals around the country," Janz said.

LCMC Health is marking the two-year anniversary of identifying its first COVID-19 patient. University Medical Center, which is a part of the health system, would soon become a Ground Zero of sorts, in the city's fight against coronavirus.

Dr. Jeffrey Elder told WDSU that in late March 2020, LCMC hospitals treated a total of 500 COVID-19 patients at one time. On Monday, that number dropped to just a dozen.

"While this isn't over, we can live our lives," Elder said. "We can protect our most vulnerable population and we can do the things we want to do while living with this virus long-term."

Elder said the city has not seen a dramatic increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 after celebrating Mardi Gras two weeks ago.

"Hopefully, those (increases) get lower, have a shorter duration, are more spread out over time and this really does become an endemic virus," Elder said.

He cautioned that Louisiana is not there yet, warning that the state needs to boost vaccination rates to avoid another surge in cases.

Dr. David Janz runs the Intensive Care Unit at UMC. He told WDSU that the pandemic tested his team like never before.

"Unprecedented is probably the only word I can use to describe the feeling," Janz said. "The rate at which patients were coming in, how quickly they were coming in, how sick they were, it was just overwhelming. If we hadn't spent weeks to months anticipating this and planning for it, I could easily imagine that it would have been much more chaotic than it was."

Janz said that planning helped save lives.

"We've had some of the best ICU outcomes with COVID patients of a lot of hospitals around the country," Janz said.

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Local ICU doctor discusses pain and progress in the pandemic - WDSU New Orleans