Surgeries delayed in SLO County as omicron stresses local hospitals
For years now, Paul Edwards has had trouble with his right side.
“I’m hobbling around on a cane now,” said Edwards, 80, of Cambria.
First it was his knee, which was operated on decades ago. More recently it was his ankle, which had a torn tendon and was surgically repaired at the orthopedic center at UC San Francisco in spring 2021.
He’s also has trouble with his right hip and knew for some time that it would eventually need to be replaced.
After about two years of careful monitoring by his orthopedist at French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, Edwards said the doctor decided it was time for the surgery.
“It’s every time I take a step, I can feel something going on in my hip, starting to send pains down my leg,” Edwards said. “I start to wonder, is my ankle completely healed or not?”
Until his right hip replacement is complete, it’s hard to know for sure. His medical team scheduled his surgery for Jan. 5.
The surgery, however, didn’t happened that day as planned, and it hasn’t happened since, as stressed San Luis Obispo County hospitals put off elective procedures amid a surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant.
How COVID demand is affecting other hospital operations
Edwards and his wife Kathy were glad to have a date for the surgery and looking forward to resolving his chronic hip issue.
“He’s in a lot of pain,” Kathy Edwards said. “It pains me watching him try to get around. It was such a relief to know that he would be taken care of and such a disappointment that it didn’t happen.”
Two days before his Jan. 5 surgery, Edwards reported to the hospital to take the mandatory COVID-19 test. He rescheduled his February dental cleaning on the recommendation of his medical team and washed with both special antibiotic soaps in his surgery kit to prevent infection.
Then, the day before his surgery was scheduled, Edwards said he got a call from the hospital saying they had to cancel all elective surgeries, which includes orthopedic procedures such as hip replacements, due to an influx of patients coming in that required hospital beds.
Edwards will need to stay overnight for monitoring after his surgery, meaning he needs a bed.
So his surgery was rescheduled for Jan. 18.
Edwards picked up a new surgical prep kit and went through the entire rigmarole again, but about five hours before he was due to report for his procedure the second time, French called again to cancel.
“French Hospital said we have no beds,” Edwards said. “They said they had a lot of people come into emergency that were really sick.”
The hospital didn’t specify in their conversation with Edwards if this rescheduling was due to too many sick patients or staffing shortages, but Sara San Juan, director of marketing and communications for Dignity Health Southern California, said in a statement that the spread of the omicron variant in San Luis Obispo County is impacting staffing levels at the hospital.
“The highly contagious omicron variant has impacted staffing levels in many departments at French Hospital Medical Center, and we continue to take every precaution to keep our patients and staff safe and healthy,” San Juan wrote in an email statement.
“While staff shortages do have an effect on our daily operations, it is not to the extent that it poses any risk to patients,” she wrote. “We continue to monitor staffing levels and are evaluating elective procedures on a case-by-case basis.”
Tenet hospitals also pushing back surgeries
French Hospital is not the only facility forced to delay procedures to cope with an influx of COVID-19 patients.
Hospital officials at Tenet Health Central Coast said they are asking doctors to evaluate the clinical necessity of each elective surgery and limit booking surgeries for patients that may need hospitalization to recuperate.
“Like many hospitals, we have a surge in COVID-19 patients contributing to very high census levels and have asked physicians to use their discretion in limiting surgeries that result in hospitalizations to ensure safety and best practices. We trust that doctors will use their judgment on which cases should proceed,” hospital officials at Tenet Health Central Coast told The Tribune in a statement.
After surgery, the patient’s immune system is weakened and more susceptible to infection, likely another reason that physicians in San Luis Obispo County are rescheduling elective procedures.
But the reality doesn’t change for Paul Edwards, who has been struggling more with pain each day.
He said he’s beginning to regret his decision to not have both the ankle surgery and hip replacement at the same time, like the orthopedic surgeon at UCSF offered.
“It’s really kind of got to me about having these things canceled at almost the last minute,” he said.
Kathy Edwards said the constant rescheduling has been nerve-racking and introduced countless logistical challenges for the couple. For example, she had to find someone to take care of their dog twice now and her son, who works at Vandenberg Air Force Base, planned to take time off work to help the couple after the surgery.
“It’s just really, really frustrating,” Kathy Edwards said.
The Edwards family said they aren’t blaming local hospitals or physicians for the inconvenient reschedulings.
“We don’t feel like it’s the hospital or the doctor,” she said. “I’m just really mad at the people that don’t get vaccinated, that’s my feeling. I feel like that has been the big cause of this lack of bed space.”
After the second rescheduling, Kathy Edwards vented her frustrations on Nextdoor about unvaccinated people catching COVID-19 and jamming up the hospitals.
Her post received more than 20 comments as of Thursday — some in sympathy for the Edwards family’s plight and others who came to make a statement about anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and public health measures in San Luis Obispo County.
“I have had to postpone needed medical care for almost two years now,” wrote a Nextdoor user named Fred Wolfe.
Cambria couple hope third time is a charm
For the third time, the Edwards family has marked their calendars, this time for Feb. 1.
Two days before the surgery, Paul Edwards will drive from Cambria to San Luis Obispo for his COVID-19 test, adding more to his tax deductible medical mileage. He said they’ve logged more than 5,000 miles in the past year.
If the surgery gets canceled for a third time, Edwards said he might just head north to UCSF for his hip replacement, since they have an entire orthopedic center that is likely less impacted by coronavirus patient surges.
Kathy Edwards said she isn’t so sure they’re going to want to make the trek again, but understands that he is pretty fed up with the pain and the delays.
“The people have treated me pretty well,” Edwards said of his French Hospital Medical Center team. “I’ll just have to blame it on COVID. Its just stacked up the hospital so badly.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
