Louisiana doctors struggle as COVID patients flood hospitals

Across the state of Louisiana more than 3,000 patients are hospitalized with COVID-19.

In Louisiana, the COVID-19 crisis is leaving hospitals teetering on the edge of collapse. The state currently has the nation's highest case rate, and hospitalization levels -- more than 3,000 at last count -- are stretching the health system to a breaking point with patients overwhelming intensive care units and staffing in short supply. “Our volume, over the past couple of weeks, has been outrageously high,” Dr. Jon Michael Cuba, service line chairman for emergency medicine at Ochsner Health in Baton Rouge, told ABC News. “There has been a ton, a ton of COVID. We are built to deal with this, but with this surge, there is a lack of nurses, a lack of beds and it’s hard to get enough physicians to see the onslaught of patients that are coming in.” In the last month alone, hospital admissions have surged by more than 340%, amidst a steady rise in daily cases over the last seven weeks.