Kansas man dies after waiting for ICU transfer as hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19

A McPherson man died Sunday after waiting for a hospital bed with specialized care to become available as health care centers face a surge of COVID-19 patients.

Rob Van Pelt went into McPherson Hospital Tuesday for a routine procedure, but his heart unexpectedly stopped, his wife Somer Van Pelt posted on social media. He was airlifted to a Wichita hospital where he was intubated. He was having unexplained brain seizure activity. Doctors advised he needed to go to another hospital that had a neurological intensive care unit.

Hospital staff searched for a place that could take him.

Last Friday, they started the process of getting him transferred to a hospital in Oklahoma City, but that fell through. Later that day, a bed opened up at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis in Wichita and he was transferred.

As COVID-19 cases in Kansas and beyond have jumped with the spread of the delta variant, health systems have faced staff and bed shortages. In early June, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Kansas had dropped to the low 100s. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s latest data, that has jumped to 710 patients.

At Ascension, some of the neurological ICU beds had been converted for COVID-19 patients.

This week, the number of COVID-19 patients at Ascension has averaged in the low nineties.

“With already unseasonably high overall patient volumes, it is adding to the challenge of finding the right bed with the right staff at the right time for every patient being referred to us for care,” said Dr. Sam Antonios, chief clinical officer for Ascension Via Christi.

Somer Van Pelt on Saturday said doctors had determined her husband did not have any brain activity and a ventilator was breathing for him.

“Rob Van Pelt passed peacefully at 6:44 p.m.,” she posted Sunday. “He was surrounded by family and friends, listening to our favorite songs.”

Before he was taken off life support, he donated his organs.

Somer Van Pelt said she will never know if anything would have changed medically had he been able to get a bed earlier, but that with access to the care he needed, he could have been monitored with the right equipment. She urged people to get vaccinated and wear a mask.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Van Pelt’s family.