GONZALES- Doctors at Our Lady of the Lake Ascension are urging the public to continue following statewide orders to stay at home as they are seeing an influx of cases.
 
As of Friday afternoon, six of the seven ICU beds at OLOL Ascension were occupied. Five of those patients were currently on ventilators.
 
Dr. John Fraiche said plans are in the works to continue serving patients that come in.
 
“Everyone is very observant,” Dr. Fraiche said. “It’s somber because of the entire situation going on in our state. We’re preparing, adamant about being prepared when patients come to our facilities.”
 
Dr. Fraiche said there is a COVID unit at OLOL Ascension with 27 beds. As of Friday afternoon, 18 patients were there.
 
On March 18, on-site testing began in Ascension. Of the 350 tests, 80 have come back positive. With Ascension Parish seeing a large increase this week in cases, plans are underway to transform other parts of the hospital for COVID-19 treatment if needed.
 
“We have 34 non-COVID beds right now,” Dr. Fraiche said. “I suspect some of those could be converted based on need. We will try to meet the need of all patients that show up in our facility.”
 
As uncertainty looms, doctors did have some encouraging news.
 
“We are seeing a number of positive cases where people are not that sick,” Dr. Fraiche said. “They are home, get well in three or four days and get back to their former status at home.”
 
With so much unknown, doctors are watching the state’s situation closely.
 
“We are all concerned with projections we see coming from the state, coming out of New Orleans.”