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The lack of ICU beds caused by rising COVID-19 hospitalizations has been blamed for the death of an Army veteran from a treatable illness.
The family of Texas war hero Daniel Wilkinson told FOX 29 that he died after unsuccessfully searching for treatment for his gallstone pancreatitis.
"U.S. Army veteran Daniel Wilkinson, of Texas, died of a treatable illness because the COVID crisis left him without an available ICU bed even though he lives three houses down from an emergency room and 60 miles away from some of the greatest health care facilities in the world,” CBS News journalist David Begnaud tweeted.
Wilkinson presented himself at a Houston-area hospital only to be told that all of its ICU beds are occupied by COVID patients.
His family told FOX 29 that Wilkinson, a veteran of the now-concluded war in Afghanistan, only needed a half-hour long procedure to extract a gallstone but the hospital couldn’t perform it.
Wilkinson's inability to find an available Houston-area hospital to treat his gallstone pancreatitis forced his physician to look elsewhere in the U.S., the station reported.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo hopes the tragedy that befell Wilkinson’s loved ones serves as motivation for people to take precautions against the delta variant.
"U.S. Army veteran Daniel Wilkinson served two deployments in Afghanistan, came home with a Purple Heart,” Hidalgo tweeted. “It was a gallstone that took him out. It took a full day for him to find emergency care in Houston. Get vaccinated. Our hospitals are at the brink."
Hidalgo and county leaders last month approved $30 million to address a nursing shortage in the Houston area.
"[Sixty hundred twenty-two] nurses are arriving in Harris County as a result of our $30 million investment,” she tweeted. “We have massive nurse shortages due to record numbers of COVID patients. We have ER closures and the delay of vital surgeries. People are dying needlessly.”