PAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 10, 2021
Salem Health CEO delivers ‘dire and grim’ update
By JOSEPH CAPPELLETTI
Of the Keizertimes
Cheryl Nester Wolfe, Salem Health
CEO, presented a stark view inside
Salem Hospital as the COVID surge
continues to swamp the state’s hospitals.
“You see a young mother who’s
unvaccinated, who’s pregnant, and you
do a C-section on the young mother to
save the baby,” Wolfe said Thursday,
Sept. 2. “And we know the mother isn’t
going to make it. That’s the reality of
what’s happening.”
Wolfe described the circumstances
during a Thursday meeting hosted by
the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce.
A daily update from Salem Health on
Sept. 7 showed of the 494 licensed beds
in the hospital, only 20 remain. Wolfe
said what was happening inside the
BUSINESS
SPOTLIGHT
AND
hospital was “dire and grim.”
“The reality is we are completely full.
We’re canceling surgeries,” Wolfe said.
“And we aren’t canceling surgeries that
aren’t necessary, we’re canceling surger-
ies because we can’t accommodate an
ICU bed for the patient.”
On the morning of Wolfe’s update,
the hospital had 21 COVID patients in
the 30 bed ICU. Of those 21 patients, 16
Services
were on ventilators. Wolfe said the hos-
pital has never experienced anything
like this.
“I will tell you quite factually that
those 16 aren’t going to make it. That’s
the reality of what we are dealing with,”
said Wolfe.
As of Sept. 7, there were 23 COVID
patients in the ICU with 13 on ventilators.
Wolfe added that the hospital has
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