A woman with a ‘very dangerous’ brain tumor broke down in tears as she revealed she cannot get surgery to remove it despite doctors saying she needs the procedure ASAP — because the hospital is full of COVID patients.
Amanda Harris, from Portland Oregon, found out she had a brain tumor in October 2021, and was told by her neurologist that she needed to get it surgically removed as soon as possible or it could cause ‘irreparable harm’ to her brain.
Her doctors are not sure if the tumor is cancerous or not, but because it is ‘pressed up against her brain stem’ it needs to be taken out immediately.
Unfortunately, Amanda said she is not able to undergo the lifesaving procedure since there are no more beds left in the ICU due to all of the people who are suffering from COVID-19.
A woman with a brain tumor revealed she can’t get surgery to remove it despite doctors saying she needs the procedure ASAP – because the hospital if full of anti-vax COVID patients
Amanda Harris, from Portland Oregon, found out she had a brain tumor in October, and was told she needed to get it removed immediately or it could cause ‘irreparable harm’ to her brain
Unfortunately, Amanda said she is not able to undergo the lifesaving procedure since there are no more beds left in the ICU due to all of the people who are suffering from COVID-19
Amanda, who works as an artist and woodworker, broke down in tears as she opened up about the heartbreaking situation on TikTok in a video shared at the end of 2021.
‘Unfortunately it has been made quite clear that I will not be receiving brain surgery this year to remove my tumor,’ she said in the clip, which was posted last month and has since gone viral.
‘For those of you who don’t know, I was told on October 1 that removal would need to happen by the end of the year to avoid the tumor growing large enough for me to start seeing symptoms which could quite possibly be signs of irreversible brain damage as well as to prevent the tumor from attaching itself more formally to my spinal chord than it already is, and therefore making surgery that much more dangerous.’
According to Amanda, she had been trying to get hold of the person who was supposed to schedule her surgery for weeks – only to receive devastating news when she finally got in touch.
‘She didn’t have anything to tell me because almost all surgeries are being put on hold due to a lack of ICU beds,’ she explained.
In the end, the doctor told her to ‘be patient’ and wait for a bed to open up.
Amanda, who works as an artist and woodworker, broke down in tears as she opened up about the heartbreaking situation on TikTok
Her doctors are not sure if the tumor is cancerous or not, but because it is ‘pressed up against her brain stem’ it needs to be taken out as soon as possible
She continued: ‘It could be weeks or months from now. I am terrified.
‘The unknown aspect of all of this is so f**king scary. They won’t know if this is a cancerous mass or not until they take it out.
‘I’m going to plead again — please get vaccinated. Please get boosted.’
Amanda decided to get an MRI after she started to feel severe pain in her spine in the fall of 2021.
She then discovered that she had a tumor in her head, which they noticed was growing really quickly.
She explained in another TikTok: ‘My neurologist told me he needs to get that thing out of there ASAP because it is indeed pressed up right against my brain stem and if we wait to see if it grows, and I start seeing any symptoms at all, that could be a sign that it is doing irreparable harm to my brain.’
Many people took to the comment section of Amanda’s videos shared their own stories, with one writing, ‘ICU RN here… My first thought was go somewhere else, anywhere — then realized there’s no where to go. My state’s ICUs are full. I’m so sorry.’
‘So sorry. My cancer surgery has been canceled four times due to COVID patients. Eff the unvaccinated,’ another added.
Amanda decided to get an MRI after she started to feel severe pain in her spine in the fall of 2021. She then discovered that she had a tumor in her head, and it was growing really quickly
She said she was ‘terrified’ and begged people to get the COVID-19 vaccine and booster
Many people took to the comment section of Amanda’s videos shared their own stories
However, others claimed her problem had nothing to do with vaccination status
Someone else said: ‘Unvaccinated people who can be vaccinated should not have a bed. That was the choice they made. I’m so sorry you have to go through this.’
‘Neuro ICU RN here, I am praying for you. I am fully vaccinated and boosted and fighting misinformation everyday. My ICU is full too, it is horrible,’ a different commenter shared.
A fifth person wrote, ‘This infuriates me. My son had his cancer surgery cancelled three times. He finally had it but it had grown a lot. Vaccinate people.’
However, others claimed her problem had nothing to do with vaccination status.
‘It has nothing to do with the vaccine and everything to do with staffing problems due to mandates,’ someone said. ‘You’re blaming the wrong thing.’
Another added: ‘Except that beds are being taken by vaccinated… Oh and its not a lack of beds its a lack of staff to take care of these patients. Very scary.’
‘Such a sad situation. Nothing to do with people being vaccinated or not though,’ one TikToker user claimed.
The United States recorded a million new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, shattering the global record it previously set, and making the US by far the hardest-hit nation of the pandemic.
On Monday morning, the U.S. reported 55,114,057 confirmed cases. By midnight, the tally had risen to 56,190,946 — an increase of well over a million in under 24 hours.
There have now been 827,753 deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19. There were 826,065 deaths during the same time frame analysis performed by DailyMail.com, meaning fatalities increased by 1,688 over the same timespan that infections surged by one million.
Monday’s number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the US, which itself was a doubling from the prior week.
Outside the US, the highest number of cases recorded in a single day was in India, when more than 414,000 people were diagnosed on May 7, 2021.
Amid the surging omicron variant, Oregon Health & Science University predicts that Oregon could see the number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 spike to more than 3,000 by early February.
‘That’s 2.5 times higher than the delta peak of 1,178 peak September 1, a level that pushed Oregon hospitals to the brink and resulted in the highest concentrated number of deaths of the pandemic,’ Oregon Live reported.
From December 30, 2021, through January 2, 2022, there were a total of 9,701 new confirmed cases of COVID recorded in 34 Oregon counties, according to KOIN.
Included in that total was the single-highest total ever recorded in the stage — 3,534 on December 30.
According to New York State health officials, fully-vaccinated people had between an 90.2 per cent and 95.7 per cent lower chance of being hospitalized with COVID-19, compared to those who were unvaccinated.