ICU staff battle patients’ regret, denial and mistrust during Quebec’s 4th wave – CBC

Increase in younger, unvaccinated COVID-19 patients at Laval’s Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital

Oct 05, 2021

Eighteen months into the pandemic, Joanie Bolduc-Dionne never imagined some COVID-19 patients would question or fight with hospital staff about what medical treatments needed to be done to keep them alive.

“Either people are in denial or aggressive against the staff because they think we are exaggerating the situation or that things aren’t as bad as we’re telling them,” said Bolduc-Dionne, the head nurse in the intensive care unit at Cité-de-la-Santé hospital in Laval.

She recalls a 30-year-old pregnant woman, who refused to be oxygenated even though her levels were plummeting.

She eventually had to be intubated and transferred to another hospital to receive specialized care called ECMO, a machine that removes the patient’s blood so it can be oxygenated and then pumped back into their body because their lungs are too damaged.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/laval-covid-icu-fourth-wave-1.6199031