| ||
| Vol. 23, No. 14 |
| August 1, 2001 |
|
Heroes Put Patients First By LINDA HINKLE St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital Around 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning, June 9, a barefoot Charles Swanson, vice president of facilities at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, found himself alone, on top of a roof, furiously bailing water with a bucket, while torrents of rain and bolts of lightening performed a frightening dance across the Texas Medical Center skyline.
Swanson explained, "A facilities technician and I found a roof flooded and holding water. The torrent was greater than the drain system could handle, and if we did not lower the water level on the roof, there was a good chance it was going to collapse. I sent the technician to get help, got a bucket and got to work. The rest of the facilities team soon joined me."
Swanson knew it was going to be a long, long night when he arrived at St. Luke's Friday night, June 8. Since Tuesday of that week, the hospital had moved to Condition Level 3 due to heavy rains from Tropical Storm Allison. By that Friday night, the situation had worsened.
By 7 p.m. that evening, St. Luke's had moved to Condition Level 2. It experienced the full force of a storm band directly over the medical center producing torrential rainfall, creating what was later referred to as "Lake Fannin," in reference to the flood-submerged street that is a main artery for this medical community.
"By 9 p.m., we were telling our 3 to 11 staff to stay over because we didn't feel it was safe for them to leave, and we weren't sure when their night relief would arrive," said Swanson. "We were monitoring the weather and the floodwaters very closely."
"Recognizing the potential loss of total power during the worst of the storm, I asked Rosemary Luquire, senior vice president of patient care, to begin identifying patients who had to be relocated (if necessary) and to direct her patient care staff to begin gathering portable equipment, such as ventilators, oxygen and monitoring, to support the patients during the transport," said Swanson. "We were very fortunate to be able to utilize the facilities of St. Luke's Medical Tower, which, because it was built in the late '80s, would not have any problems with losing its electrical power."
Having access to St. Luke's Medical Tower was not the only thing in St. Luke's favor that night.
"We have one of the most solid teams in health care, who calmly made decisions under pressure that, in retrospect, would prove to be right on the mark. The close working relationship among administration, nursing and the medical staff was also in our favor," said Swanson. "We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the nurses, techs, residents and fellows, some who stayed in the hospital for up to 36 hours following the storm. We're very indebted to those who braved floodwaters to help, despite their own personal tragedies at home.
Meanwhile, later during that wet and fateful night, Swanson continued to perform his part to make sure that everything was being done to protect the hospital's facilities. On hearing a report of massive flooding coming in the hospital basement, Swanson made a quick inspection of the situation. The outcome was clear - if the water got through the steel doors blocking the water's path, the circuits for emergency power would short out, and all utilities would be lost. The facilities team worked heroically to buttress the steel doors with two-by-fours and plywood to hold the water back, however, they didn't know if (or how long) it would hold. When the metal door and frame was pushed out of the wall, Swanson learned that the waters could not be held back. Knowing the building systems, he knew St. Luke's was going to lose all electrical power. His overiding concern - the welfare of several hundred patients. Swanson communicated to Luquire the need to evacuate critically ill patients. Upon her instruction, the team she had assembled went to work.
"As a former critical care nurse, the ramifications of losing power for our critically ill patients was clear to me," recalled Swanson. "I knew the risks involved in moving these patients, but thanks to the outstanding nursing and medical staff, we were able to board our lifeboat - the St. Luke's Medical Tower - before we actually lost our main power source and our backup generator power."
"Largely unreported were the selfless acts, long hours and dedicated efforts of the countless employees, physicians, community volunteers and vendors to the hospital who - as a team - did whatever it took in the interest of patient care and facilities recovery," said Swanson. "Thanks to them, St. Luke's was able to restore light to many patient units by Sunday, June 10, and the next day was able to transfer back to intensive care those patients who had received temporary ICU care in St. Luke's Medical Tower. It was still a long row to hoe in the next week as we carefully prepared for reopening, but thanks to everyone - including employees, our fellow TMC institutions and `strangers off the street' who pitched in to help or bring supplies - we were fortunate to be able to return to Condition Level 4 (hurricane season) by June 18."
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/08_01_01/page_11.html |