It is rather striking how much the odds of hospitalization and death go up conditional on a positive test, but even then the odds really aren't that bad.

I've read similar things from verified sources written by doctors in these kind of roles (not broken noses but of serious abuse from anti-masker, anti-vax nuts, as well as the kind of deaths the post is talking about). Obviously in the kind of ward implied here they're seeing the worst of the worst cases.

Are you saying it's not true because he talks about a 38 year old dying from COVID? Over 14,000 people in to 30-39 year age bracket have died from COVID in the US this far. If you were in ICU at a big hospital you might see a few dozen people in this age bracket dying (as well as many, many more older people). And yes, it's a small proportion of cases but if getting vaccinated might have stopped 90% of them dying (sadly a lot of those deaths would have been before the vaccines are available though), that's no small thing, even if the general risk for somebody in that age group is fairly low...

So who knows, maybe this particular anecdote isn't true, but it is consistent with a lot of things I've read that I know are.