‘It looks like a war zone’: 2 docs say hospitals are under siege, supplies running low (Propaganda Alert)

NJ.com ^ | 3/23/2020 | Spencer Kent

[usafa92]

The doctor’s voice was filled with distress.

Dr. Suraj Saggar didn’t have much time to talk. At times, he even sounded almost out of breath. Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck is under siege from the coronavirus, and he needed to get back to his patients.

But first, he had a desperate message he needed to send.

They need help.

“It looks likes a war zone,” said Saggar, Holy Name’s chief of infectious disease.

The hospital is in such dire need, it took the unprecedented step of pleading to the public for donations to buy critical supplies.

Holy Name is filling with COVID-19 patients. Supplies are running low. Doctors and nurses — already at risk of exposure — could be put in further danger if they run out of protective equipment, while some already have gotten sick, medical workers said.

The Bergen County hospital — located at the epicenter of New Jersey’s coronavirus outbreak — is on the brink, nearing its capacity and supply stock. And it’s not alone in this deepening crisis as hospitals throughout the state face diminishing supplies and equipment.

Holy Name is running out of ventilators. The facility is down to only a four-day supply of respirators. Its stock of protective gloves and eye shields are dwindling. And disposable gowns are already gone.

"Everything is running low,” Saggar said, speaking rapidly as a clamor of background noise carried over the phone line — the cacophony of doctors and nurses rushing around him, tending to patients.

[gogeo]

Be well.

[jmacusa]

Thank you. So far I’m doing ok. No aches and temp is all normal.

[Coleus]

Teaneck has a high percentage of Orthodox Jewish residents, who defied the social distancing at their shuls, etc. Many still conducted weddings and the like. You see the pictures, there are many and they bunch together. Their schools are over crowded, etc.

Also, this part of Bergen County also has a high population of Asian people, mostly South Koreans, with also a high percentage of people from China.

Holy Name Hospital is a small hospital. BTW, on a side note, it’s supposed to be a Catholic hospital yet they do not have a crucifix symbol in the stain glass in front of the building; instead they have a symbol of the pagan ankh cross.