Those weren’t their faces in the line of picture portraits. Nor were those their names.

But the University of Kansas Health System professor telling their stories in an alarming public forum Wednesday assured that they and the devastation of Covid on their lives were real.

There was the college athlete, stricken as he was primed for competition, a heart arrhythmia triggered by the coronavirus, now wearing a life-vest defibrillator, “who may not play athletics again,” Dr. David Wild said.

The college student who fell ill and had to have a portion of her lung removed.

The woman who has been on a ventilator now 40 days.

The healthy 60-year-old man, “who had no reason to fear for his health,” who caught Covid, lost the ability to oxygenate, and, despite “the most advanced medicine,” died.

“We see the toll it takes,” said Steven Stites, chief medical officer of University of Kansas Health System, speaking of the leading area doctors and medical directors who spoke in the live Covid discussion convened by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

“There is a pain that goes with Covid that is different than anything we’ve seen,” Stites said. “Much, much worse than influenza.”

The medical and civic leaders came with a warning:

“Either we get greater control of the virus or the virus will take greater control of our health, our economy, our daily activities,” said Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas Mayor David Alvey.

The Kansas City region remains in "the Red Zone” as the number of virus cases has risen, the rate of positive tests remains high, and deaths mount.

The fall season — with schools trying to open and the anticipated added stress of flu season looming — threatens to make the region one of the next hot spots for potential dangerous outbreaks.

“Our greatest source of anxiety is that we will experience a surge which overwhelms our system and will be unable to care for our patients,” said Dr. Larry Botts, chief medical officer of AventHealth Shawnee Mission in Merriam, Kansas.

Many schools have opened. Many are readying to launch after Labor Day. They are doing so trepidatiously, some with students in classrooms, others entirely online.

Whatever chance schools have to get open and stay open, said Kenny Southwick, executive director of Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City, depends on our collective will to embrace the public health precautions emphasized anew in Wednesday’s forum.

“If we do not exercise what we heard today,” Southwick said, “we’re going to be right back where we were last spring (when schools suddenly closed). “

“My pleading is,” he said, “we need all of the community’s help . . . We’ve got to have a higher level of community responsibility.”

That means, the health experts reasserted, wearing of masks indoors and outdoors, maintaining social distancing and limiting group gatherings to no more than 10 people.

Otherwise, the hospital leaders said, they fear a major surge in cases this fall.

“Our biggest concern, our staff’s biggest concern, our greatest source of anxiety, is that we will experience a surge which overwhelms our system and we’ll be unable to care for our patients,” said chief medical officer Larry Botts of AdventHealth Shawnee Mission hospital.

Nervousness surrounds schools, with data since mid-July showing that people ages 10 to 19 are one of the largest growing demographics infected by the coronavirus. Older children especially have been shown to have the same viral load as adults and can spread the virus at least at the same rate as adults.

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer