DALLAS — Omicron is spreading fast, and the daily number of positive cases across North Texas is on the rise. For a Dallas-area girl, she was forced to postpone a surgery while she was in her hospital gown waiting to get operated on.
“As soon she told me I had COVID, I asked my mom if I was going to die?” 10-year-old Miracle Sewell recounted.
Sewell was with her parents in the hospital when a doctor came in and gave them the news.
“I was laying down and waiting for the doctor to come in, and she told me I tested positive,” Sewell told WFAA.
Family said she’s been waiting for years to have this surgery in her tonsil area.
“I hear beeping a lot in my ears," she explained. "I have fluid in my ears."
Often times, she said she loses balance, even falling at recess during school.
On this evening, her body was aching.
“My legs, my arms, my head,” Sewell described.
Now, Sewell and her family are being forced to wait weeks for the surgery again, not only because she is positive for COVID, but also because of the shortage in staff across hospitals in North Texas.
“Yeah, she’s crying, it’s very emotional," explained Priscilla Sewell, Miracle's mother. "She’s very scared."
The Sewell family is not alone.
“It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Stephen Love, the president and CEO at the DFW Hospital Council, as he described this latest surge in the virus.
Before a patient goes in for surgery, they get tested for COVID-19. That's when Love said many test positive for the virus, forcing doctors to work double duty, and treat the patients immediately.
“Omicron is extremely dangerous,” Love said.
Back at the Sewell household, all got tested for COVID. And as the family anxiously waits for the results, they’re forced to stay home and not work.
"Financially, this is taking a huge toll on you guys?" WFAA asked.
"Very much so," Priscilla Sewell said. "My 22-year-old son moved back in the house, and he’s working 18 hours a day to support us."
They’ve set up an online crowdfunding campaign hoping it will help provide for Miracle’s surgery and the long road ahead for them.
“I honestly don’t know how it’s going to all happen,” Priscilla said, wiping away tears.