This archive report was first published on 5 July 2020.
Published on July 5, 2020, a Methodist hospital in central Houston was struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospital's intensive care unit was filled with patients, including 72-year-old Rosa V. Hernandez, who had pneumonia so severe that she would have been put on a ventilator and made unconscious if she had fallen sick several months ago.
However, doctors were taking a different approach, avoiding ventilators when possible and maintaining Ms. Hernandez on a high flow of oxygen through a nasal tube. She was on the maximum setting, but could still talk to the clinical team and exchange text messages with her daughter, who was also a Methodist inpatient with the coronavirus.
Ms. Hernandez reflected on her decision to join a small party for her granddaughter's birthday, saying, 'I took it seriously,' but now regretted it, adding, 'Just a birthday cake. What's a birthday cake without health?'
She was receiving remdesivir, an antiviral that had been tested in clinical trials in New York and Houston, as well as a new experimental drug. Methodist hospital had been part of two remdesivir trials, but since the research had ended, they now relied on allotments of the drug from the state.
However, the supplies of remdesivir had run short, said Katherine Perez, an infectious-disease specialist at the hospital. 'In Houston, every hospital that's gotten the drug, everyone's just kind of used it up,' she said.
The hospital had received 1,000 vials of remdesivir, its largest batch ever, a little over a week ago. Within four days, all the patients who could be treated with it had been selected, and pharmacists were awaiting another shipment.
Methodist researchers were exploring new opportunities to test remdesivir in combination with another drug, which may provide some relief. As cases continued to rise, the hospital was being flooded with offers to participate in studies, with about 10 to 12 new opportunities a week being vetted centrally.
