It’s the unrelenting nature of the COVID-19 variants of concern and the severity of illness in patients that has struck Dr. Ryan D’Sa most about the third wave of the pandemic. The variants have not only been more infectious — spreading rapidly in the community — they have also led to more hospitalizations for younger adults, many of whom require critical care and a ventilator to help them breathe.
“The bulk of our patients tends to be the 40- to 60-year-olds, and we’ve had people in their 20s and 30s in the Intensive Care Unit,” says Dr. D’Sa, Niagara Health’s Medical Director of Critical Care. “Patients are younger, sicker, often deteriorating quickly.”
It’s a scene playing out in hospitals across the province and it has put extreme pressure on Ontario’s critical care capacity.
“This is unlike anything I have ever seen,” says Dr. D’Sa, a physician for nearly 20 years.
