There are no ICU beds left at this Sampson County hospital. Every bed is filled with a COVID-19 patient

"We are putting patients in non-ICU locations that are ICU patients, staffing and caring for them in those locations instead of our normal ICU," said Shawn Howerton, Chief Medical Officer with Sampson County Regional Medical Center.

In the past two weeks, more than 750 people have tested positive for the virus in Sampson County, data from the state Department of Health and Human Services showed. Statewide, 25% of the nearly 4,000 North Carolinians with COVID-19 are in intensive care units and almost all of them are on a ventilator.

Each COVID-19 patient requires 12 to 14 times more liters per minute of oxygen compared to a regular patient that needs breathing support, Howerton said. Even with that amount of oxygen, patients still say they feel like they are suffocating.

'None of us signed up for this': Lumberton hospital struggles with crush of COVID patients

"You are using so much oxygen, that the oxygen tanks start freezing on the outside," he said.

The fire department had to be called in to spray water on 8-inch thick slabs of ice that accumulated on oxygen tanks outside the hospital. Those tanks used to need to be refilled about once a month, now they need to be refilled once a week.

"At this point, there is no end in sight," Howerton said.

“You crash your car this weekend, I don’t know that I can find a bed. That's nuts. We’ve never been in that situation before,” Dr. Wolfe said.

Statewide, only about 20% of hospital beds were available on Friday.

The hospital posted a desperate message on their Facebook page — a 2-minute long video using the voice of a healthcare worker. The nurse said that there were no beds open for people who needed care beyond COVID-19.

'A lot of death around here,' nurse says of working in ICU filled with COVID patients

"This year, we are physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted," said nurse Kassie Johnson, who works in the ICU.

The video is pleading for residents of the county to get vaccinated, for the sake of healthcare workers. Only 40% of Sampson County residents are fully vaccinated, compared to more than 60% of Wake County, state data shows.

"After giving so much last year, we have nothing left to give, and it's still not enough," she said.

"There aren't many wins anymore. And when there are, you still cry, because finally someone lived," Johnson said.

Howerton said that his staff is completely exhausted and in tears as they try and save as many people as possible as the Delta variant of coronavirus rapidly spreads among the unvaccinated.

"I have seen people who have just ended their medical career, where they do not intend to ever practice medicine again, because they are so exhausted," he said.

"Wake up people, you're not invincible, no matter how smart you think you are," Johnson said in the video.