{"id":129792,"date":"2020-03-28T09:14:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T14:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=129792"},"modified":"2020-03-29T23:27:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T04:27:45","slug":"vw-hospital-physician-talks-about-covid-19-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/03\/28\/vw-hospital-physician-talks-about-covid-19-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"VW physician discusses COVID-19 efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a confirmed case of COVID-19 now identified in Van Wert County, Dr. George Trimble, a physician at Van Wert Health on the front lines of local efforts to combat the virus, said it is even more important now for local residents to continue to do the things that will hamper the spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A masked Van Wert Health medical staff member takes precautions as she goes about her normal routine at the hospital. Van Wert Health photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the keys to effectively handling COVID-19 cases, Dr. Trimble said — in addition to maintaining social distancing, hand washing, and sanitizing household surfaces — is, surprisingly, not to overreact to catching the COVID-19 virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople need to treat this like the common cold or flu: drink fluids, stay in bed, and take Tylenol for aches and pains,\u201d the local physician noted, adding that most people who catch COVID-19 will only have relatively minor symptoms to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Trimble said that people who think they may have COVID-19 should either call their doctor or the Van Wert Health helpline (419.203.9161) to receive direction on how to treat the symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there is an important reason for people to maintain social distancing and to stay at home during this outbreak, because of the highly contagious nature of the coronavirus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis disease is super contagious, maybe not as contagious as smallpox, but more contagious that anything else we\u2019re used to in our society,\u201d Dr. Trimble noted. With the virus\u2019 ability to remain on surfaces for anywhere from hours up to days, depending on the surface, it\u2019s also important to make sure to keep surfaces clean and to wash one\u2019s hands often for at least 20 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Until symptoms are serious enough to warrant intensive hospital care (serious breathing problems, etc.), there is little healthcare professionals can do to treat those suffering from more minor symptoms of COVID-19, Dr. Trimble said, adding that people should just self-medicate at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest reason to stay away from the ER is the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPEs) — masks, gloves, etc. — needed to keep medical staff members who work in close contact with sick people safe from infection. Every time someone with minor symptoms comes to the ER unnecessarily, medical staff members must use valuable masks and gloves that are already in short supply, he noted, adding that testing kits are also very limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest challenge with COVID-19 is a logistical one: keeping the caseload as small as possible so cases don\u2019t overwhelm the number of available hospital beds and needed equipment, such as gloves, masks, and, in very serious cases, ventilators. Van Wert Health has just three ventilators and five ICU beds to use for serious cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having people stay at home is also important, Dr. Trimble said, to \u201cflatten the curve\u201d of infection for the disease. With a certain number of hospital beds already being used for patients suffering from other illnesses and injuries, getting too many COVID-19 cases at one time would likely overwhelm the local healthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach person who gets the disease will give it to three others,\u201d he said, adding that lessening the number of initial cases also significantly lowers the number of people who ultimately will catch the virus — as well as how many people have it at any one time — due to the exponential spread of contagious diseases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Trimble praised the decisive action taken by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Health Director Dr. Amy Acton as instrumental in lowering the number of Ohioans who get COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. George Trimble<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were lucky in that we got the lesson of California and New York to rattle our cage a little bit, let us know this is here, it\u2019s hitting home, and so it allowed us to kind of react ahead of time, get ahead of the curve,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, it\u2019s important to stay ahead of the curve, he added, noting that people must continue to stay at home until the outbreak is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy fear is that, over time, people will start to lose the sense of immediacy,\u201d Dr. Trimble said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to persist until this gets through or we lose our advantage, and we could be very quickly in the situation we see New York in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Van Wert Health physician said he is pleased with what local residents are doing to keep the spread of the virus contained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to tell them \u2018thank you\u2019,\u201d he noted. \u201cThey have done a great job, they have been staying home, they haven\u2019t overwhelmed our emergency room yet, people are really making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community has also been very supportive by providing equipment to help maintain the safety of medical personnel, said Ellen Rager, VW Health patient-community coordinator. Rager noted that local company Cool Machines and Van Wert Rotary Club donated 2,000 N-95 masks to the hospital, while other local residents have also made donations of unused masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was such a special gift when they brought in all these masks,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rager also noted that members of the hospital\u2019s Lady Board of Managers have also been sewing cloth masks that can be used by hospital personnel treating non-contagious patients, so the N-95 masks can be saved for patients suffering from COVID-19 and other contagious diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Trimble also noted that, while young people aren\u2019t as much at risk for serious COVID-19 symptoms, young people are still dying from the disease around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not often that young people have the chance to be heroes,\u201d the physician said, stressing the fact that it takes everyone doing their part to keep the spread of COVID-19 down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not like an asteroid coming from outer space over which we have no control,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe do have some influence (over the outcome).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fix comes when individuals, each person in our little community, makes his or her own choices to do the right thing,\u201d Dr. Trimble said. \u201cThese things that we talk about, like social distancing and hand washing and staying out of the public — and even the basic premise that you accept that this is dangerous and get over the denial that this isn\u2019t really a problem — these small acts really do make a difference and they can impact the trajectory of this disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope we each take up that power, grab it, and run with it, because it matters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor With a confirmed case of COVID-19 now identified in Van Wert County, Dr. George Trimble, a physician at Van Wert Health on the front lines of local efforts to combat the virus, said it is even more important now for local residents to continue to do the things that will hamper the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 01:51:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}