Happy Mother’s Day!
Motherhood: it’s one of the most important jobs that has ever existed.
We all know that being a good mom is challenging, but being a good mother through the unprecedented times of COVID-19 has proven to be much more than just a labor of love: It’s been learning about strengths we never knew we had and dealing with anxieties we never knew existed.
For over two years, during this horrible pandemic, mothers have worked magic as they tried to hold it all together: a family, a job and their emotional and physical health, as well as that of their children.
They became more than just mothers. They became teachers, nurses, social workers and lifesavers to their young and adolescent children, grandchildren and adult children.
No one can do the balancing act quite like a mother; she’s the axis that keeps our tilted worlds afloat.
In honor of all mothers across the state of West Virginia, I commend all that you’ve done and continue to do every day. Happy Mother’s Day!
Barbara Evans Fleischauer
Morgantown
Thanks for covering Military Signing Day
I was pleased to see The Dominion Post covering Military Signing Day at University High School.
As a veteran, I’m glad to see these students get the same recognition as accomplished athletes and honor students. These young men and women are the 1% of the population who choose to serve their country.
James T. Delisi
Morgantown
Is COVID still backing up emergency rooms?
It wasn’t too long ago that I predicted that unless a sizable percentage of the population agreed to get vaccinated (the state percentage of vaccinated is right around 55%), our health care system would be overrun with people sick with COVID that would swamp our hospitals and ERs (also called the ED).
I’m sorry to say that this appears to have happened.
Early in March, on a Wednesday, a friend of mine was driven a local ER for a pancreatic attack, where he was unloaded at the door into a wheelchair and wheeled into the registration area. He was checked in, given a wrist band and, other than having blood taken once or twice, he sat in the wheelchair for the next six hours.
Yes, you read it correctly. He did not see a doctor, or nurse; he was not put in a room, not given any pain medication or even asked how he was feeling. Upon his asking (again) about being seen, he was told that there were no rooms available, nor were any doctors available.
We know that at the height of the pandemic, COVID patients occupied almost every available bed, and people with other conditions couldn’t get into hospitals because of it. We also know that the stress of the pandemic has caused health care worker burnout and turnover.
Do we know for sure that it was because of COVID that an ER was completely full for over six hours on a Wednesday?
No, but it’s a reasonable guess. At least, COVID was likely a factor, if not the whole reason.
For the sake of the citizens of the area, this lack of timely care for my friend points to several different problems that I hope are addressed soon. Some need to be addressed by the ER itself, the un-vaccinated need to understand that getting the vaccine is in everybody’s best interest, and not getting it is a detriment to more than just them.
Tom Talerico
Morgantown
