Dark Days Rough Roads Read Free

room and everyone focused on him. He looked
around, saw the infectious control officer and asked her how long the rooms and
patient equipment could last without being cleaned. She responded by saying
that in some of the isolation rooms, it would have adverse effects within a
day. Within two days, about a fourth of the hospital would have undesirable
consequences, and by the end of the week it would be a pure hell hole filled
with far too many infectious diseases to even start naming them right now. This
did not even include waste handling, lack of water for toilets and sinks, and
linen exchanges that would not happen.
    He looked
over at the housekeeping director and asked him how long before the trash cans
were full, the outside dumpsters overflowing and the rodent control would
lapse. “Two days. That’s all,” he said. Haliday said, “You could add that to
the infectious disease issues and realize things would be getting far worse
much faster than anyone could expect.”
    The food
services department piped in and said the spoiling of fresh food would start
within days, the freezer would stay cold a few days and the fridge maybe two.
Haliday informed him the food would be gone in a matter of 2-3 days tops anyway
with this many people looking to eat and more people surely to show up thinking
a hospital is a safe haven. There wouldn’t be any food deliveries each day like
they normally had.
    Haliday
looked around once more and told them these were basic issues that people took
for granted. “Look around,” he said. “Look how dependent we are on technology.
IV pumps no longer working, pain med pumps not giving people morphine and other
drugs, no blood pressure monitors, no pulse ox meters, no telemetry, no nothing.”
Haliday continued, “What you now have is a lot of people who need to leave
before a lot of people start a slow painful death.”
    It
wouldn’t be a good place to be and he started heading for the door and said, “I
surely won’t be here more than the time it takes me to get my personal stuff
out of my truck and leave myself. That brings up another point, good luck
starting your cars and making it home.” Some of the people commuted 30 to 50
miles one way. He paused only briefly to look around at the folks who still
didn’t get it, although a couple of them had excused themselves for one reason
or another, most likely on their way out the door as well.
    In the
meantime, during this little meeting, all hell was breaking loose around the
facility. The surgical center and outpatient procedures center were trying
desperately to wrap things up and stabilize patients. Unfortunately for one,
there was no hope. As soon as the equipment stopped, there was no suction for
clearing the surgical sites, there were no blood pressure monitors to alert
anyone of low blood pressure and old fashioned cuffs were a thing of the past
due to mercury content. Most of the OR equipment was electronically controlled,
so it had failed. It was a fast crash and thankfully the patient had not woken
up from the anesthetic.
    Up on one
of the long-term care floors, they had six people on ventilators. The nurses
and patient care associates were all trying to manually vent these patients,
but were tiring very quickly. Screams for more staff to come and help fell on
deaf ears. There were simply too many patients to care for in a situation like
this. The staff was tiring out very quickly.
    Too many
patients needed care and too little staff was in the facility. Someone needed
to triage now and make a determination of who would live and who they would
have to let go. The grand idea of saving everyone was just that, a grand idea.
If they knew what the next few days would be like, they would walk away now. It
was a noble idea to try and wait things out, to help the patients, but it was a
risk they shouldn’t take.
    Some of
the staff already started leaving. A few years back, they had had a massive
power outage in the state and even with the