Detroit ER Nurse: "We've Run Out Of Stretchers. We've Run Out Of Body Bags."

[hatrack]

DETROIT -- Krysti Kallek has worked for the past decade in the emergency department at Detroit’s Sinai Grace Hospital. But she’s never experienced anything like Michigan’s coronavirus crisis. The number of patients. The severity of their symptoms.

The emergency department is bursting to the seams, day after day, night after night. “We’ve run out of stretchers. We’ve run out of body bags,” said Kallek, who is a nurse.

Patients end up in the emergency-department hallways using oxygen tanks, she said. One night, they even ran out of oxygen tanks, so staff ran oxygen tubing from patient rooms to the people in the hallways.

And the COVID patients who come in are so, so fragile. “We’ve never had patients like this, who crash so fast out of nowhere,” Kallek said. “One minute they’re smiling and the next minute they’re down.” And when the patients are put on ventilators, which many are, it’s hard to keep them calm and sedated, she said. “So you have to put them on multiple drips, which brings down their blood pressure and you have to monitor that, and they’re still waking up and having things happen out of nowhere.”

EDIT

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/04/running-out-of-body-bags-people-dying-in-the-hallway-coronavirus-has-michigan-hospital-workers-at-a-breaking-point.html?utm_campaign=wp_the_daily_202&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_daily202

[Buckeye_Democrat]

1. Those poor people!

Meanwhile, the IMHE model used by the Trump administration is probably predicting there should be no shortages there!

[gibraltar72]

2. And the bastard Republicans are asking people to call the Governor

to demand she reopen areas of the state. Republicans are the lowest form of life.

[Igel]

7. Then again, look at the map of Michigan.

There are counties with no reported cases and more with no deaths. And some of the ones with a couple of cases reported those weeks ago.

Those places are locked and shuttered not because of a heightened risk in those areas, but because of a risk 200 miles away. There are medical resources even outside of Detroit, and with testing in case of a hotspot the hotspot wouldn't pull resources away from the important place, Detroit. In fact, contact tracing might even work up there and give health workers training for after the Thaw.

Otherwise it's like saying, "No problem up in the Upper Peninsula, open up Detroit." Different conditions, different circumstances, no need for a one-size-fits-all approach. It's a question as to who wags who.

If that happened, I would put a cordon around places like Detroit, though, to keep the contagion from spreading.

[Botany]

3. But just yesterday Trump told Jim Acosta everything is fine

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017576492

[smirkymonkey]

9. He said "We're in great shape!" "We are doing beautifully"

He is such a fucking liar. He is a murderer. This is intentional on his part. I hate this man more than I have ever hated anyone in my life.

[bronxiteforever]

4. Kick and recommend for visibility

These stories match N.Y.C. area stories from healthcare workers. The sudden crash of the patients is horrifying.

[secondwind]

5. How can this happen???!!?? Has MI received bad equipment

from the monster in the WH...... it begs the question

[gibraltar72]

8. At one point I know they asked for PPEs when they opened the boxes

They had enough for one shift for one hospital. That was it. Gretchen talked about that as one example. I know we still don't have enough testing equipment.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

6. The city where I grew up is dying...

Only cold calculated revenge can simmer boiling blood. Or so I heard from a not so close friend.