NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Hospitals tell us they're experiencing a record high COVID patient volume as the Delta Variant spreads. Among the hospitals seeing cases are children's hospitals.
Parent Tywaska Ewin is seeing the impact of COVID cases among kids firsthand.
Thinking her own 10-year-old daughter may have COVID after being exposed to someone with the virus, and experiencing worsening symptoms, she took her daughter to Vanderbilt's Monroe Carrel Junior Children's Hospital where she saw just how busy medical crews are.
"There's a slew of kids in here that are very ill, and one nurse told me they've had so many COVID cases that it's just out of control," Ewin said.
Children's hospitals are generally always more full than typical hospitals, especially in the summer.
But the latest numbers show more than a third of the reported COVID cases statewide are in kids.
Vanderbilt's Monroe Carrel Junior Children's Hospital reported 16 kids hospitalized with the virus, making what would be a typically busy summer, even more hectic.
To Tywaska's relief, doctors told her today the symptoms, including chest pain, her daughter was experiencing, were not COVID.
Her daughter is too young for a vaccine herself, but she says the trip to the hospital drives home the point for those who can get the shot -- to do it.
