Every day when Ava Rezentes gets home from school, a nurse is there to help take care of her. But as of Monday, there won't be a nurse waiting. "We're kind of on the verge of collapse at this point," said her mother Kaui Rezentes. Nurses are leaving private homes to work at hospitals desperate for staff because of a record number of patients. "About 500 patients a day more than what we had pre-pandemic," said Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. "Because patients are getting sicker." But as hospitals pull staff from nursing facilities and home health care agencies, many families have nowhere to turn for help with seniors or children like Ava, who is paralyzed and on a ventilator.
