‘We have to support them’; Hospital support walk held to honour health-care heroes

Jacques doesn’t work in health care herself, but she said she has many friends and family members in the field, and support is needed.

“There’s long hours, staff are stretched thin, there’s no family time and not a lot of quality time with their own kids at this point. They are putting the people first,” she said.

Signs with words of appreciation were held up high, as staff members at the hospital look on through the window, their faces smiling as they waved back.

Mecah Klem came to the rally with his entire family, including kids Adah and Madeline.

“We just thought it was really important to show some positive support for health-care workers. I think there is a lot of negative stuff on the internet, and social media, and I think people really, really appreciate how hard our doctors, nurses, cooks, everybody is working at the hospital,” he said

“I think it is really hard on them, they’ve done a lot of work and we have to support them,” added 10-year-old Adah Klem.

Adah is just one of many kids who participated in the rally. For some of them, the need to participate went beyond just lending support.

“When we grow up we are going to be the ones who are going to be able to vote and be in charge and if we don’t vote for the right people bad things can happen,” said Sofie Plattersnale.

At just 10 years old, Sofie believes bad decision-making contributed to the severity of the pandemic in Alberta.

“Some people don’t believe in wearing masks, but I think it is important because there are so many people in health care where they don’t have enough people working, and there are too many people with COVID-19 that need help, so it is very important to wear masks and respect the restrictions,” she said.

On Sept. 20 an outbreak was declared at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital after one patient and three health-care workers tested positive for COVID-19

The latest update from the province shows hospitalizations are at record numbers.

There are 1,961 people in the hospital and 243 people in ICU province-wide.

An Alberta Health Services spokesperson told CHAT News on Thursday that there are 47 inpatients at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital and 11 in ICU.

On Wednesday four new surge beds were added at the hospital, but a local nurse said on social media that those beds were already filled.

As of Friday, there are 680 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat.

by Tiffany Goodwein

‘We have to support them’; Hospital support walk held to honour health-care heroes

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