COVID-19 cases have been the highest Saint Luke's Health System has seen during the pandemic. 

Dr. Andrew Schlachter, pulmonologist and critical care specialist, stands in front of a COVID ICU room at Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City and speaks with The Kansas City Star about what Saint Luke's critical care teams are seeing, how critical the illnesses are that they are treating, and his wish for relationships between health care workers and patients and families.

“I wish I had magic words that are any different than the words that I’ve used for the last (two) years,” said Dr. Schlachter. “It’s harder when you don’t see the world I live in in an ICU. But I would say as someone who is an ICU doctor, who has been here on the front lines with my partners and my care teams for the (entirety) of the pandemic, I can promise you, you do not want to be an unvaccinated critically ill patient.”

Read the full article published in the Kansas City Star: ‘Utterly tragic’: The toll of COVID, through the eyes of a Kansas City ICU doctor