Heath officials at the Starr County Memorial Hospital announced this week that they are creating committees to review patients’ cases at the hospital. Around 50% of the patients who have been admitted to emergency rooms tested positive for the virus. Resources are limited and not all patients may be able to be treated at the hospital.
Dr. Jose Vasquez, the county’s health authority, said that the situation is “desperate.”
“Unfortunately, Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment, and who is sent home to die by their loved ones,” Starr County Judge Eloy Vera wrote in a Facebook post. “We are in a life and death situation,” she added during a press conference.
Vasquez added that doctors are forced to evaluate which patients have the best chance of survival. Patients deemed too sick may have to be sent home.
Governor Greg Abbott said on Saturday that US Navy teams were deployed to South Texas to battle the spread of the virus.
The region along the US-Mexico border has recently seen a dramatic surge in cases, threatening to overburden local hospitals.
