In Covid-Swamped Texas, Patients Die Stranded In Rural Clinics

In this wealthy state, 14,700 people were hospitalized as of September 1, just below a record set in January as a winter Covid wave wreaked havoc across America.

Daniel Wilkinson survived two tours of duty in Afghanistan but died of gallstones, deteriorating slowly as his under-equipped doctors looked on helplessly. Wilkinson, 46, lived only 90 minutes by car or 30 minutes by helicopter from Houston, renowned for its top-flight hospitals. The problem is the Texas health care system has been utterly overwhelmed by people suffering from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. In this wealthy state, 14,700 people were hospitalized as of September 1, just below a record set in January as a winter Covid wave spread across America. "In the previous surges, we kept a little over 750 patients. Right now we've been running between 820 and 850 patients, so the hospitals are quite full," said Roberta Schwartz, executive vice president of Houston Methodist Hospital, which is actually a group of hospitals.