Kentucky hospital feels strain of staff shortage amid COVID surge: "You can't ask nurses to take care of any more people"
CBSN
For Dr. Brad Baker, the fight against coronavirus is personal. He was born at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Kentucky, and came back for his residency. Right now, the virus is ravaging his home.
"The frustration comes from that we've been shouting from the rooftops for a long time now how bad this is and what this can do. And to watch it, despite your warnings and your pleadings, to just come through and take life like it does, that's hard," Baker told CBS News' Nancy Chen.
St. Claire is the largest rural hospital in northeast Kentucky and it's the only hospital in a county of roughly 24,000 people. Baker said he has open beds but not enough nurses to staff them.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.