People waiting outside Lee County’s overcrowded ERs for hours

People are spending hours in Lee County’s emergency rooms while hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. People are being told not to come unless they have a true emergency.

One woman told WINK News she waited seven hours outside of a crowded ER before she could get to a hospital bed. Her doctor told her she needed to go to the ER and even had an ambulance take her, but when she got to the hospital, she had to wait just like everyone else.

Susan Rosenberg of Sanibel expected speedy care when she arrived at HealthPark Medical Center Wednesday afternoon. What she got was anything but.

“Ill people sitting there, and I’m one of them, for hours, waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.”

Rosenberg, 83, couldn’t stop coughing. When she first arrived at the hospital, they hooked her up to an IV, checked her vitals, then wheeled her back out into the waiting room. She said it was overcrowded.

“I must have looked concerned because they said would you like to sit outside? I said yes, so they wheeled me outside and there were quite a number of people sitting outside too.”

One hour turned to two, then three, then four, as more and more sick people flooded the inside and outside of the ER.

“I saw a woman lying down on a bench because she was so sick she couldn’t stand. People were just outside waiting hours. That shouldn’t happen.”

Rosenberg waited seven hours to get admitted. She was sick, hungry, thirsty and exhausted.

“I’m wondering why did they have to get me over here in an ambulance to wait all of those hours.”

She’s fighting viral bronchitis and said she’s lucky she got a bed in the hospital. Now, she hopes something is done to keep sick people from waiting so long.

“Something has to be done about it because this is cruel. To have people, sick people waiting this long.”

Lee Health said they are not forcing people to wait outside. However, you should expect a longer wait right now. They’re directing people who need COVID-19 testing to go to pharmacies or urgent care clinics instead of the ER.

Lee Health’s hospitals as of Thursday morning were treating 480 COVID-19 patients.