May 1, 2009 9:20 pm US/Central
Evanston ER Grapples With Flu Scare
EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS) ―
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St. Francis Hospital in Evanston has seen an influx in patients during the recent flu outbreak -- some of the number attributed to fears people have about getting sick.
CBS
What's it like on the front lines in the war against the H1N1 flu?
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole found out Friday. He spent the evening at St. Francis hospital in Evanston, where the ER has been one busy place. Doctors treated 20 "suspected" cases of H1N1 and evaluated hundreds of other patients with flu-like symptoms.
They're still attending to patients while wearing masks, but the ER staff is finally getting time to reflect.
"It's been tough," emergency-room nurse Angie Pojas said.
"It was pretty crowded," fellow nurse Katie Ross-Aiken said.
The influx of patients approached 200 each day this week. "It was almost too many people to walk around," Dr. Brian Huettel said.
That's twice the normal number here.
"The difference was, they're coming by group -- they come by sometimes the whole family," Pojas said.
Staff size was doubled to 32 doctors and nurses who worked 16 hour days to handle the influx of patients.
"This has been a dramatic spike in less than several days," Huettel said.
Waiting rooms are now almost empty as initial worries over the H1N1 flu subside, but they were once standing-room-only with people concerned about a sickness linked to deaths in other countries.
"I had a lot of patients come in with no symptoms but just wanted to be tested," Ross-Aiken said.
"They are kind of scared because of what they are hearing," Pojas said.
In most cases, their work meant assuring patients, face to face, that they could set aside their fears.
"I'll be honest with you, one of the things that's hardest is we're doing this with a mask on, and so you feel you have to overcome that barrier," Huettel said. "But the ability to talk with them one on one does help."
Looking back now -- after an exhausting week -- they admit they're proud of the work they did together.
"I look at it (as) we're a Level 1 trauma center, we expect things to happen," Ross-Aiken said.
"It's been an extraordinary amount of teamwork to get through this week," Huettel said.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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