'People Are Younger and Sicker': Louisiana Nurse Shares Emotional Plea Amid Delta Variant Surge

A COVID-19 intensive care unit nurse issued an emotional plea in Shreveport, Louisiana, amid a statewide surge in delta variant cases.

Nurse Felicia Croft of the Willis-Knighton Medical Center shared a video recounting her experiences during the delta wave in the ICU.

“People are younger and sicker, and we’re intubating and losing people that are my age and younger,” she says. “People with kids that are my kids’ age that are never going to see their kids graduate. They’re never going to meet their grandkids.”

“I can’t explain the feeling of defeat when you do everything, you pour everything into a patient and it’s not enough,” says Croft tearfully, “and then to know they could’ve gotten vaccinated and it could’ve made a difference.”

According to the Louisiana Department of Health, 84 percent of deaths resulting from COVID-19 between July 22 to July 28 occurred among those not fully vaccinated. Governor John Bel Edwards temporarily reinstated the statewide mask mandate on August 2, citing “Louisiana’s insufficient vaccination rate and the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.” Credit: Felicia Croft/Willis-Knighton Medical Center via Storyful