This is about #NOLA my home for several years my daughter attended school in the French Quarter in the days before Katrina and disaster tourism and the city caring more about infrastructure for the Superbowl than the cracking concrete in the Lower 9th Ward inthesetimes.com/article/14428/…
Text yesterday from person working @OchsnerHealth in #Louisiana and #COVID19 "in the shit" "call after work" -- as a reporter I get calls and texts and DMS from around the country about many things - and now re: COVID19.
(Up front apologies for any/all spelling errors, etc.)
(Up front apologies for any/all spelling errors, etc.)
Perspective on Ochsner's reach in Louisiana. This from the website: 
Phone call came in late afternoon from a person I call "M" leaving Ochsner shift. M. lived thru Katrina.Went out in a boat looking for survivors; the dead tied to front porches - not a gruesome act but one of compassion: God please don't let them just float away from their family
M's voice sounds the same now talking about #COVID19 as talking about the nightmare of Katrina. In a city used to hunkering down - one where we used to laugh about hurricane parties, plywood on windows and stocking up on TP and booze. M & I know too much (now I am 18 yrs sober)
When people say "no one could have seen this coming" they could just as well be talking about the catastrophic failure of the levees in New Orleans as the COVID19 pandemic.
Everyone saw it coming. The federal government did nothing then, nothing now.
Everyone saw it coming. The federal government did nothing then, nothing now.
Projections of devastating hurricanes were well known - we all saw the nightmare scenarios reported on the news what if a storm came up the Mississippi? A direct hit? Category 4? What if? We all knew it, we all knew the levees were crumbling, advocates sounding the alarm to Feds
All fell on deaf ears.The levees breeched. Katrina wasn't a natural disaster - it was man made it was the rotting levees that destroyed the city and its people not the storm. I saw @hodakotb on @TODAYshow crying (I used to watch her on CBS in New Orleans) - my heart breaks again.
Yesterday, on the phone with a livid M. That day M. was working on a med/surg floor (floating since the cutbacks on workers - a good prevention step) M was asked to clean surfaces w/disinfecting wipes. There were none. M. asked for more. Was told there were no more.
From Ochsner website:
There were #COVID19 cases on the Unit M told me
No one alerted M; M observed three (or two or one) red dot sticker on the door and asked 'what's that' - oh, COVID and presumptive COVID.
No one alerted M; M observed three (or two or one) red dot sticker on the door and asked 'what's that' - oh, COVID and presumptive COVID.
No disinfecting wipes, no clean surfaces and despite the claims on hospital website the equipment isn't cleaned between each patient use. M. assigned vitals visiting patient rooms with something that looks maybe like this.
Now, remember, no disinfecting wipes, repeated requests by M and others for wipes (none), must take vitals on a floor with confirmed COVID case - the floor where patients recuperate after surgeries. Here is my highly accurate portrayal of the cart's shift
M and the cart (and other staff and another cart) navigate healthy post surgical and medical patient's rooms with a piece of equipment which has not been sanitized between each use.
We know that COVID19 can live on surfaces for for days - recently found on #DiamondPrincess after 17 days theguardian.com/us-news/2020/m…
M's voice escalates, cuts in and out as she navigates the dead spots in the parking garage. M is picking up an N95 mask from a friend who happens to have one because none of the staff on the floor have anything but surgical masks.
I ask how the fuck is that possible. M says I haven't heard the best part yet. Each employee of Ochsner enters their campus at a certain point, they are given a mask and a brown paper bag. The direction is: use this mask until soiled or torn, store in bag when not in use.
M and I are unclear on the healing properties of the brown paper bag. Maybe as some in positions of power suggest it will miraculously just disappear the virus - wash through and over and carry it all away.
Yesterday a man coming into the campus at one of the general patient check points paused for a temperature reading. He said aloud - angrily - that this (temperature taking? precautions?) was stupid because this #COVID19 thing is a "hoax"
M and her co-workers are increasingly alarmed. While a FB chat hosted by Ochsner last week said that ICU staff is equipped with proper PPE and therefore would not need to quarantine after working with COVID19 patients because they were appropriately outfitted. Safe.
But COVID19 patients aren't just in the ICU. What of the staff and patients on that floor where the little vitals cart was shuttled from one place to the next? M and others are raising the alarm to higher ups and getting pushback. 'Are they just drinking the Kool-Aid?' M asks
A clear reference to Jonestown appropriated to point to sheep following a hapless leader unto death. It seemed an inappropriate time to correct the record: Jonestown used Flavor-Aid.
I called @OchsnerHealth PR left a message to find out what is going on especially as New Orleans is fixing to be another hot zone along with NYC where I live now.
Please if you are a worker that isn't getting the equipment you need - I DGAF if you are a doctor, nurse, truck driver, grocery stocker, etc. - scream until someone hears you. And my DMs are always open. I am protecting M's identity - jobs, lives and livelihoods are on the line
