The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 51 COVID patients today, 55 Wednesday. Other significant numbers:
- 26 with the active virus today, 28 Wednesday
- 7 in ICU, 6 Wednesday
- 4 on a ventilator, 2 Wednesday
Key points from today’s guests:
Sam Platt, heart patient
- Sam returned from a late night drumming gig but was having pains in his chest.
- When antacids didn’t work, he knew something was wrong and woke his wife up to take him to the hospital in Lawrence.
- The doctors didn’t like what they saw, so they put him in an ambulance and sent him to The University of Kansas Health System, where they determined he needed quintuple bypass surgery.
- His recovery has been fantastic, and he thanks his entire team, friends and family for helping him get into a new lifestyle – walking, exercising, diet – so he can feel great and continue to play at music venues around Kansas City.
Dr. Tyler Zorn, cardiothoracic surgeon, The University of Kansas Health System
- Sam came with a diagnosis of a celiac artery dissection, which is a tear and one of the major blood vessels that goes to some of his stomach organs like the liver pancreas, spleen, stomach.
- But the doctors did a further check and found that there was a lack of blood flowing down the coronary arteries to the heart.
- Bypass surgery has been around for about 50 years. Essentially what you're doing is routing blood flow around the blockages, taking native blood vessels, either the vein from the leg or the artery from the chest wall to reroute that blood flow.
- The teamwork is really something else in a cardiac surgery – the operating room team, physician assistants, surgical techs, circulating nurses, anesthesia team – so many people contribute to a team effort of delivering great care in difficult situations.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, The University of Kansas Health System
- Unfortunately, we've seen the number of ICU patients increase slightly with seven in the ICU and four on the ventilator, so we do have some severe COVID disease right now here in the hospital.
- The journal Nature published a report that the World Health Organization has stopped looking into the origin of COVID.
- The best evidence we continue to have is that it was a multiple spillover events around that Wuhan market area.
- Knowing this specific cause is not as important as continuing the research and the surveillance to help prevent further events in the future.
Friday, February 17 is the next Morning Medical Update. People with Down syndrome used to die young, but we've come a long way in a short time. Modern medicine is creating longer, healthier lives for people living with this condition. You’ll meet one of our guests, an adult, living with Down syndrome.
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