‘Too Sick’ COVID-19 Patients In Texas County To Be Sent Home To ‘Die By Their Loved Ones’

Starr County in Texas was once without any COVID-19 cases during the initial days of the pandemic. However, now the county has reached a “tipping point” with an alarming number of new coronavirus cases being reported each day.

Starr County, which is one of the poor and mostly Latino counties on the Mexican border, has handled the COVID-19 pandemic extremely well initially. However, the situation has changed tremendously now.

“We rank as one of the poorest counties in the nation. However, that does not deter us,” Joel Villareal, mayor of county seat Rio Grande City had said once during a media interview.

Even though the county was one of the first ones to have banned large gatherings, ramp up testing and made face masks and stay-at-home orders mandatory, it was also quick enough to have issued orders for reopening of the state. Since then, COVID-19 cases have surged every day.

Starr County Memorial Hospital, which is the county’s only hospital, has started to overflow with patients. The county health board that governs the hospital is set to come up with critical care guidelines for the healthcare workers to allocate scarce resources to people who have the best chance to survive and come out of their critical condition.

Jose Vasquez, the county health authority, said that patients who are not likely to survive and may die are better sent home to be with their family.

“For all of those patients that most certainly do not have any hope of improving, they are going to be better-taken care of within their own family in the love of their own home rather than thousands of miles away dying alone in a hospital room,” Vasquez said during an interview on Tuesday, July 21.

He said that resources at the hospital are limited and therefore, the doctors will have to decide who is to be kept at the hospital and has the best shot at survival and who is to be sent back home.