COVID-19

To my family of friends and patients, Once again, here is some information from Hoag Hospital that may be of interest to you. (For those of you outside of Orange County, I’m sure similar things may be happening in your own communities.) No music today. I don’t want to trivialize the following important current information from Hoag Hospital and the Orange County Health Care Agency (www.ocgov.com). I just wanted to let you all know the troubling facts of our local COVID-19 situation, so you can take appropriate actions if necessary. COVID-19 is exploding in Orange County and already affecting operations at Hoag Hospital. According to the OC Covid dashboard, the Orange County average new case rate per 100,000 has increased by over 600% in the last 2 weeks (the rate is more than double that for ages 19-44)!  The Hoag Hospital general census is full and the Hoag Covid census is higher than it was during the summer peak, more than doubling in the last week alone. Recent policies put in place by Hoag reflect our dire situation. Current Hoag Hospital status: Virtual meetings only: On Jan 3, Hoag mandated that effective immediately, “all meetings and events (including those at […]

What’s the current science on masks and which type should I be using?  Even though there is cause for optimism with hospitalizations and ICU admissions starting to decline in Orange County, we can’t afford to let down our guard now.  Mask wearing and social distancing remain the most effective ways to control the pandemic until widespread vaccinations are available for everyone and we can determine if those who have been vaccinated can still be contagious, and also if the vaccines are effective against new variants of the virus.  Below I will summarize some facts about masks that have been published just in the last week. The face mask that could end the pandemic Here’s the face mask that could end the coronavirus pandemic. Read in CNN: https://apple.news/A-N5L2p8xRY6bc4p6JIrZ3g They are talking about N95 masks in the headline, but the headline is somewhat misleading because there is still a dire shortage of N95 masks for even medical personnel. “Studies have shown that masks significantly decrease the chances of transmitting or contracting the coronavirus. But not all masks provide equal protection. Depending on the fabric and number of layers, homemade and simple cloth masks have a range of effectiveness that can be as low […]

An Avoidable Tragedy As you may know, my practice has been on hold since March.  One of the main reasons has been because of the unnecessary dangers posed to patients and surgeons performing elective postponable procedures during this crisis. Here is one of the tragic consequences of not taking this pandemic seriously enough. It is a verbatim copy from a TMZ article from this morning. “BEV HILLS PLASTIC SURGEON DIES FROM COVID …
AFTER PATIENT COUGHS ON HIM     1/10/2021 11:11 AM PT A plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills has died from COVID-19 … and it appears to be entirely because he was able to keep working on patients during a pandemic. Dr. Payman Simoni — who’s been featured on “The Doctors” show — passed away while hospitalized in L.A. — this after he contracted the virus while performing a cosmetic procedure on a patient who turned out to be COVID positive … so say family sources. We’re told Dr. Simoni was doing a lip injection on a woman last month … obviously an elective procedure. She was temperature checked and filled out a COVID questionnaire. She was not tested. While the doc was hovering over the maskless woman, our sources say […]

To my friends and family of patients: As most of you know, I’ve been closely following the Covid-19 pandemic and the local situation in Orange County, particularly at Hoag Hospital.  Here is some of the latest information that I thought you should know about Hoag, our regional hospital. It’s easy to look outside and see the sun shining, go for a walk or bike ride, and wonder why we should be so concerned. My hope is that this factual information will put things in perspective, make it easier to see that we are in a worsening crisis that is affecting all of our medical care, and help us make informed decisions about our behavior going forward. 1 – Hoag surgeries: all Non-Emergency Surgeries cancelled Because of an immediate need for the reallocation of clinical staff for patient care due to the increasing inpatient Covid surge, “all Priority 3 and 4 surgeries and procedures and all non- emergent Priority 2 surgeries and procedures will be cancelled effective tomorrow, December 16, 2020 and until further notice.” This includes ALL procedural areas – the operating suites, cardiac cath lab, interventional radiology and the GI lab. All elective cases requiring post-surgery or post-procedure admissions […]