Emergency Situation

[smartcookie]

I have had a rough week at work.  We got snow on Wednesday, which means that my small southern town panics!  We closed early Wednesday after opening early and running all the MWF patients 3 hours.  We got about four inches of snow, give or take.   The snow turned to ice overnight and the roads were undriveable Thursday.  Thursday treatments were cancelled.  Now this is normal routine and we had prepared the patients early in the week.  What we were not prepared for is the snow and ice staying around several days  The highest temperature in the past week has been about 35 degrees Fahrenheit; enough to melt snow to refreeze the roads the next night.  We also do not experience freezing temperatures for this long here ever.  We had six water main lines break in our city, shutting down all the dialysis centers.  The two hospitals in the area had to evacuate critical patients and they could not do any dialysis.  So we were unable to run patients Thursday or Friday.   Many of our patients were starting to get sick, and still could not dialyze at the hospitals.  Saturday, we found one clinic in the city (we have four of my company and one of another) that had water.  We get there, the water goes out.  We get it back, put patients on, and an hour later the water goes out.  We were all in tears at that point.  The dietician and I were running around resetting machines to keep patients from clotting until we found out if we could get water back.  We couldn't.  Two clinics in our area got water tankers (not sure why the other two didn't, but that is managements call.  There call was extremely wrong, in my opinion.)  We ran all of our most medically unstable and high fluid gainers there Saturday evening and all day Sunday.  We finally got water back on Sunday at my home clinic, but the water had been out so long that we had to disinfect the whole water system, which took all day.  Today we are back up and running on normal schedules.

That being said, I am beyond exhausted mentally and emotionally.  I prayed all weekend.  It was very scary.  The funny thing is, even if we hadn't gotten the snow, the cold weather would have done this.  As it was, I was dealing with getting patients to places they could dialyze and also drive to.  I had a couple people iced in that transportation companies volunteered to pick up.  Our team worked well together, but we are all exhausted.  I hope our patients in the hospital have no lasting repercussions from this.














Edit Mod Cas

[iolaire]

Thank you to you and your fellow professionals.

[kristina]

Dear smartcookie
Many thanks for your great work ! Reading through it sounds very scary and I do hope, "things" (including the weather) get better!
Alt the best wishes from Kristina.

[cassandra]

What a horrible situation smartcookie, and wonderful job saving all those people.


Love to you and your colleagues, Cas

[kickingandscreaming]

Sh*t happens.  Fortunately for your patients, you are all dedicated professionals.  But I'm sure it was hugely stressful to all involved.

[smartcookie]

Thank you, all!!  I am just now feeling more rested and caught up from the experience.  My stomach is still upset, though.  The weather is finally warmer.  Yesterday got above freezing and today is supposed to, as well.  The snow and ice is about gone.  Water pressure is normal and yesterday's treatments went well.  A few patients were looking puffy this morning, though.  We will pull them today and are offering extra treatments to anyone who missed one.  That might mean running on Sunday, but we will do what we have to.

[Cupcake]

Smart cookie- I'm headed your way at the end of the month for some sunshine- it's gotta be better than Illinois where we've been in a deep freeze. Me and my cycler Mr Lucky are headed to Hilton head for a month.i was run out by fear of Irma in September so hoping I can stay the whole month! You low country folks aren't supposed to have such low temps!

[smartcookie]

Haha!  Cupcake, we usually don't which is probably why those water pipes burst, not buried deep enough!  Hilton Head is beautiful!  Good food, the ocean and a relaxing atmosphere!  I used to go there all the time as a kid.  You will love it!  I lived in Beaufort, SC as a small child.  It is called the baby Charleston and is a fun small town to visit if you have time.  They even have a drive-in theatre! 

[Simon Dog]

Nobody is perfect, you've done your best, but maybe bring the depth of those pipes up, in your next meeting?














Edit Mod Cas

[smartcookie]

Thank you, Simon Dog.












Edit Mod Cas