merelygifted:

Texas is where incompetence overlaps.  Maybe malevolence as well.  Unwilling to protect its citizens from gun violence, a man in Houston found out that if one gets shot, it might be a while before he gets help.

Let me restate that-a man needs surgery because he was shot.  He was shot because gun violence is wholly out of control in Houston.  Gun violence is out of control in Houston largely because you can buy one as easily as you pick up milk and bread.  And when the gentleman found himself victimized by a gun, shot six times, and in need of surgery, the overlapping incompetence that is represented by a Governor who got himself infected with Covid, acts as a seventh wound.

It’s been 10 days since Joel Valdez was shot outside of a Houston grocery store, and he still hasn’t been able to undergo surgery, due to his hospital being overcrowded with COVID-19 patients.

Valdez was sitting inside his car on Aug. 6 when he was shot six times, an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of a domestic dispute. He was brought to Ben Taub Hospital, where as of Monday morning the intensive care unit was at 103 percent capacity, with 33 percent of the beds filled with COVID-19 patients, The Washington Post reports.  Valdez was shot three times in his left shoulder and needs surgery, but the hospital is so overwhelmed by COVID-19 that he’s still waiting. “Everybody is really surprised I’m still in this bed a week later,“ he told Fox 26 over the weekend.

With the highly contagious Delta variant spreading across the United States and millions of people still not vaccinated, hospitals in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and other states are reporting bed shortages. Valdez told Fox 26 it’s "a little frustrating” that he has “broken bones and bullets in me” but doctors don’t see getting him into surgery as an urgent matter. He advises his fellow Houston residents to “do your best to maintain your health and not end up in a situation that puts you in the hospital right now.”

As one might expect after being shot, Mr. Valdez would like to repair his bullet wounds in a timely manner if at all possible.

This makes sense.  Bullet holes in a human being tend to age poorly.  Most humans like to have said bullet holes fixed, so they can get back to their daily routines of playing Hunger Games: Road Rage Edition, trying to not get poisoned by a chemical plant leak, and building a waterproof platform on their roof for the now yearly floods climate change has wrought.

And don’t forget in wintertime some lucky Texans get chosen by electricity providers to do historical re-enactments where they burn anything combustible to stay alive.

Yes it is always an adrenaline rush in Texas.

So as you can see, Mr. Valdez has a lot challenges to face.

I wish him well and hope that there is no next time he gets shot, but if he does, it is during a time where hospitals don’t resemble something that could serve as the inspiration for the next Saw sequel.  …