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Golisano Children’s Hospital Sees Surge in Pediatric Patients as Schools Reopen

Golisano Children's Hospital Pediatric Hospitalist Dr. Salomon Abitbol discusses the current increase in pediatric patients with COVID-19 at a press conference, Tuesday
John Davis, WGCU
Golisano Children's Hospital Pediatric Hospitalist Dr. Salomon Abitbol discusses the current increase in pediatric patients with COVID-19 at a press conference, Tuesday

The ongoing surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations largely driven by the Delta variant has resulted in an exponential increase in pediatric patients requiring treatment and hospitalization in Lee Health’s Golisano Children’s Hospital in Fort Myers. The start of a new school year, with mask wearing optional, is raising concerns among local healthcare professionals.

Physicians with Golisano Children’s Hospital held a media conference, Tuesday, on the first day of classes for public school students in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Manatee and Sarasota Counties in Southwest Florida. They shared their recent experiences with children sick with COVID-19.

Lee Health President and CEO Dr. Larry Antonucci said the community is facing a crisis with COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations reaching “unprecedented proportion.”

“Children under 12 aren’t eligible for the vaccine yet, and the children in our community who get COVID-19 are getting sick enough to be hospitalized. I think it’s important to recognize that during this entire pandemic, we would average one or two children in Golisano Children’s Hospital with COVID and today we have 14 patients,” said Antonucci.

“Fourteen children that are sick enough to be in the hospital here in Golisano and four of those are in the intensive care unit.”

Pediatric Hospitalist Dr. Salomon Abitbol said pediatric admissions due to COVID-19 have increased unexpectedly in the last two weeks, noting that sick pediatric patients currently receiving treatment at the hospital range in age from 5-weeks-old to 18-years-old.

“In the very young ones, the two-months, the five-week-old, its these very persistent high fevers. And again, I don’t know how this child, this five-week-old who’s positive for COVID is going to react,” said Dr. Abitbol.

“It’s just like any other viral situation, but when you have a child five weeks old who’s having persistently high fevers, 103º, 104º, all night, well, you can imagine the parents and you can imagine our concern as well.”

Dr. Abitbol said another new development has been the emergence of multi-systemic inflammatory syndrome response in kids who’d been sick with COVID two or three weeks ago. He said it’s a generalized inflammatory response that affects most organ systems in the body.

“Our job is to figure out which is the most affected. Is it going to be the brain: encephalitis? Is it going to be the lungs: pneumonia? Is it going to be the kidneys: nephritis? Is it a generalized situation? I saw a pulmonary embolism on a 13-year-old girl the other day and that’s very rare in the pediatric community,” said Dr. Abitbol.

Golisano Children’s Hospital Pediatric Emergency Room physician Dr. Alfredo Vargas also weighed in at Tuesday’s media conference, also emphasizing the alarming increase in pediatric COVID-19 patients coming to the hospital for treatment.

“Some come in and they are very very ill. Others appear to be more viral, respiratory and sometimes GI (gastrointestinal) symptoms, but the astonishing thing is…a year ago, when people were talking about, we were in the height of the pandemic, virtually seeing very few pediatric patients, and now its pretty much the opposite,” said Dr. Vargas.

“We’re in this stage now, where the number of pediatric cases is rising exponentially, larger and larger every day. They’re not all requiring hospitalization, thankfully, but there definitely are more and more children that are having to be admitted for it.”

Dr. Antonucci stressed that the now dominant Delta variant is very different from what healthcare workers were battling last year.

“It is much more contagious. It is affecting children at a higher rate than the Alpha variant and the original COVID-19 virus did and we’re seeing those numbers in our hospital.”

The Lee County School District is imposing a mask mandate for students that parents can opt out of by filling out a form. Lee Health Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist and Interim Chief of Quality & Patient Safety Dr. Stephanie Stovall said the health system supports the mandate, but has a message for parents opposed to masking.

“I urge you as parents to consider holding off on opting out. Let’s let this surge settle down, and then hopefully we can get back to normal lives again. I truly believe that’s the best thing for your students, the best thing for our patients and for our community,” said Dr. Stovall.

“This surge right now is worse than we’ve ever seen. It’s taxing our system, it’s taxing our healthcare workers and most importantly, it’s really affecting the most vulnerable in our population and that’s our children, and that’s why we’re here today.”

Overall, Lee Health reported another record-breaking increase, Tuesday, in total COVID-19 hospitalized patients throughout the system’s five hospitals with 455 patients, including 64 in the ICU and 35 on ventilators. Comparatively, the health system reported just 35 hospitalized patients at the end of May and 163 patients two weeks ago.

Throughout the recent surge, Dr. Antonucci says that 80-85% of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients have been unvaccinated. Lee Health officials continue to encourage mask-wearing and for anyone who hasn’t gotten the vaccine yet, to do so.

Lee Health operates a vaccination community clinic out of Gulf Coast Medical Center. The clinic takes appointments and walk-ins on Tuesdays and Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Residents can make their vaccination appointments online here. Lee Health’s pediatric mobile clinic is also traveling the county offering vaccines to eligible kids and their parents.

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