The pandemic in the Deep South has filled every available hospital is some areas, causing a breakdown in basic emergency healthcare for patients seeking urgent care.
By Hadley Hitson
The family of a Cullman man who died of heart issues in Mississippi is asking people to get vaccinated for COVID after 43 hospitals across three states were unable to accept him because of full cardiac ICUs.
Ray Martin DeMonia died on Sept. 1 in Meridian, Mississippi. He was three days shy of his 74th birthday and a well-known Cullman native, his family said.
DeMonia suffered from a cardiac event, and emergency staff at Cullman Regional Medical Center had to bring him to the nearest available bed, which was nearly 200 miles away at Rush Foundation Hospital.
In his obituary, DeMonia’s family urged people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“In honor of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not, in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID related emergencies,” the obituary read. “He would not want any other family to go through what his did.”
Of course Cullman Alabama was the site of a recent Trump rally three weeks ago, that packed in a crowd of 45,000 Trump cult members. Few of the crowd were wearing masks, and social distancing was nonexistent.
Mr. Trump in Cullman. Not a mask to be seen,
