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From Binn.
A 20-year veteran of Hilo Medical Center is concerned that a lack of personal protective equipment, coupled with what she described as unsound hospital policy, could turn a facility on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawai‘i into an epicenter for its spread.
Diana Machado first started working at HMC in 1999. She is currently employed as a registered nurse in the surgical pediatric department, which she said has been designated the “COVID-19 patient holding ground” since the hospital began preparing system-wide for an outbreak of the virus on the Big Island.
But the hospital’s preparations, both logistically and as they regard physical resources, aren’t doing enough to protect HMC personnel or its patients from the disease, Machado contended.
“Hospital staff, from what I’m seeing, are the ones who are going to be spreading (COVID-19) once it becomes a real issue,” Machado said. “The fear is we are going to become carriers into our own families.”
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They were going to make my wife( a clerk) do covid 19 cks at the front of the hospital and said sorry no masks, it will desturb our patients.
Scary, best u can do is use ur comon sense and hunker down.
Please all of u be safe
Aloha
HPP
HPP
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I understand and I feel for them.
I would be disturbed if they came out without a mask. We owe a debt of gratitude to the doctors and nurses. This virus is more contagious than the macarena. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the Betsy Ross's on island who are sewing masks for these people on the frontline.
That should not be necessary, but the federal government has adopted a hands off approach to all of this. The states are on their own, with occasional, diffident assistance when the feds are shamed into it.
All hospitals and clinics are probably vectors now. But that is also true of Target and Walmart. There is an excellent video circulating now of a doctor demonstrating how to disinfect your groceries. After watching it, you are convinced of the necessity to do so. He asks you to imagine that the packages and cartons and other items you bring home from the store are covered in glitter and that you want to get rid of all the glitter.
This stuff is on everything humans have touched. Each new study seems to indicate it survives on various surfaces much longer than initially thought. It was present on the cruise ships 17 days after the passengers of the most unwelcome ship in the world disembarked. If a carrier of the infection was at Target and took some frozen vegetables out of the freezer case and then put it back and you buy it but don't clean the package, the virus will survive in your freezer forever, according to the doctor. (Not a study but it makes sense).
The virus is here on island and has been carelessly spread. I know from what I have heard that not all cases have been documented. I have a cough and a little trouble breathing. Kaiser sent me away with an inhaler after giving me a test for the flu and not COVID. Negative for the flu. The doctor said there was no need to give me a test for COVID.
I squeak when I breathe. I live alone and will need to go to Target. For your protection and mine, that will be me in the black N95 mask and the black gloves.
Yes the hospital is probably a vector, but so may be our neighbors. That's why we are supposed to stay at home.
They say to act as if you and everyone you know is infected. That may help discourage the spread.
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This virus has been around for a while now and we've had way too many cruise ships, tourists and returning residents during the critical months all untested and so far so good for the BI, the hospital is not taxed from COVID patients.
If COVID does not take hold, it will not be a direct result of our due diligence but from the fact that the virus does not like warm tropical weather. Singapore, a very intelligent country comparatively, is being touted for their immediate response strategies however it may very well be instead that their climate is not conducive to a viral contagion.
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Im affraid u are dream8ng. If u look at the normal curvre. Oahu is just starting. We arent even on the start of the curve much less. A trooical climate which may influence the virus.
Ck back in about 4 week. Than it will be 90 have pased 9n the BI . I hope im wrong.
Honolulu is starting to get bad they are most at risk to run out of hospital beds and
Ventalators
From kims recent update
Bussiness as usual and
"Happy Prince Kuhio Day to all, a very beautiful man. "
Ya know harry wrote that
Aloha
HPP
HPP
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dan d, please explain the rationale as to why we are behind the rest of the world? Because we just got COVID testing kits? We had exposure at the same time as NY, Seattle and anywhere else. Thousands of people from Asia getting off of cruise ships in Nov thru March. Tens of thousands flying in from China, Japan and nearby countries during the same time frame. Our hospitals are not over run.
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Kelena, I wish you well. My family is staying away from all medical and dental facilities unless told via telemedical consultation that going is an absolute must. Kaiser offers this option via several modalities. I would never wish anyone any sort of illness, but hopefully you are allergic to some tropical weed. I seem to get new "squeak and sniffle" allergies as I get older, and that's why I mention it.
As far as shopping goes, perhaps you saw my description of Target's senior day in the "empty shelves" thread. Regardless, I'll boil it down for you and say that you will have to balance these factors:
Biggest Con: It was more crowded than another recent visit I made, and a few individuals were not on their best social distancing behavior.
Biggest Pro: It had been restocked overnight and had more available groceries and drugstore type items available than before.
Possible Pro: All those seniors might form a self-selecting low risk population if they have been staying at home like they are supposed to. This is iffy, but worth mentioning. You will be in good company if you use a mask and gloves, as quite a few shoppers had them when I went.
I am not going near Walmart at all under the current circumstances. It was scary before coronavirus.
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I would be comforted by seeing everyone in public wearing a mask, especially hospital and grocery staff. If everyone who had to go out wore even an improvised mask, the spread would virtually stop.
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Hospitals everywhere are a bit unsafe for patients. It's alarming that this person feels staff here are now at risk too.
General testing for the virus should be done elsewhere in my opinion, with respiratory patients only having it done at HMC.
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Not too add to the worries, but this account from an ICU heath care worker in Louisiana from last week gives some sense to where we are likely heading (as noted on the other thread hospitals there are now being over run). Hospitals are not where you want to be unless you have no other choice.
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-med...g-patients
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Hospitals are maybe where you don’t want to be in general:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-...erica.html
Cheers,
Kirt
