By Carter Woodiel
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) – A Sioux Falls woman says she is concerned about hospital capacity in the state after her father was airlifted to Fargo for lifesaving medical treatment in October.
Darla Halvorsen said her father, Darwin Peckham, had to be moved to Fargo because there weren’t any ICU beds available in Sioux Falls.
Peckham, 73, went to the hospital on October 9. He was experiencing severe internal bleeding and needed multiple blood transfusions. He and his wife drove from their home in Bristol to a Sanford hospital in Webster.
“We get there, and they could see that this problem was bigger than they could handle,” Peckham said.
Peckham’s memory is a bit fuzzy from that night, but he said he remembered hearing his doctor say on a phone call that there weren’t available rooms in Sioux Falls. He was airlifted to Fargo where he was treated and released several days later.
Sanford AirMed Senior Executive Director Michael Christianson said in an emailed statement he was unable to comment on specific cases to protect patient privacy.
“I can say there are many factors that go into the decision on where a patient is transported when the next level of care is needed, especially when a helicopter is involved. One major factor for air transportation is weather. Timing and location are also critical considerations,” he said.
Christianson added it “is certainly not uncommon to transport a patient from Webster to Fargo,” since Fargo is closer to Webster than Sioux Falls.
Halvorsen, who lives in Sioux Falls said her parents were used to coming to the city when they needed more advanced care, despite the slightly longer distance.
“It’s just always been much more convenient for them to come here,” she said.
South Dakota’s COVID-19 information page reports 14.7% of hospital beds are taken up with COVID-19 patients, with non-COVID patients taking up 50.4% of available space. That leaves 34.8% of hospital beds available.
Avera McKennon Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Elliot said hospital workers are stretched thin at a Monday news conference.
“We don’t have the capacity to take care of double the normal [number] of people we care for on any given day,” Elliot said. “And yet COVID has done that, has stretched us.”
Halvorsen said she doesn’t trust messages from the state government that hospitals can weather the surge.
“Our nurses and our doctors are not going to be able to take care of everyone,” she said. “People need to wear their masks so the hospital isn’t full of COVID patients.”
(Mark Russo, KELO.com News, contributed to this report.)
