Inside an Ohio children's hospital facing a COVID surge
More than 300 children with COVID-19 are in Ohio hospitals, including Dayton Children's Hospital, where workers are seeing a significant increase in pediatric COVID-19-related hospitalizations.
Dr. Vipul Patel, chief of pediatric intensive care at Dayton Children's, told ABC News the ICU is now busier than at any other point in the pandemic.
COVID-19 is only exacerbating previously existing health issues for many children, Patel explained, adding that many parents are shocked to see their children become so sick, and some families have even expressed regret for not vaccinating their kids. Nationwide, about 35% of eligible children (ages 5 to 17) are fully vaccinated, according to federal data.
Dayton Children's respiratory therapist Hillary O’Neil said it's been particularly difficult to see children who are too young to understand what is happening sick and scared.
“You can see it in the faces of kids that can’t talk -- their eyes get really big and they, we watch them struggle to breathe,” O’Neil said. “Then on top of that we watch their parents struggle to watch their child, and that is sometimes just as hard as watching the kids.”
Jackie Kerby, whose baby, Enaeshya, is hospitalized with COVID-19, told ABC News, "She’s getting these fevers in the night, and they’re not coming down. … I am terribly scared."
Across the U.S. more than 5,000 children are currently hospitalized with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, according to federal data. On average, hospital admissions among children have quadrupled over the last month.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos, Kayna Whitworth