CC Staff Continues Care, Rebuffs Blizzard's Double-Barrel Blast
Episode # 35
Uploaded: February 12, 2010
Running Time: 8:48
SCHMALFELDT: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon. The Twin Blizzards that smacked the mid-Atlantic states in the early days of February 2010. A legendary one-two punch of a storm that, in some area, dropped more than 50 inches of snow in the span of a week. Among the hardest hit locations, Bethesda, Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington, DC -- home of the National Institutes of Health. The Federal Government shut down on Friday, February 5th at noon. It remained closed until (Friday, February 12th). But at the NIH Clinical Center, hospitalized patients still required round-the-clock care. And the staff at the Clinical Center provided that help in a big way.
GALLIN: I've always said that what makes NIH great isn't the beautiful buildings. It's the people who work here. This is just another statement to that. The staff were extraordinary.
SCHMALFELDT: That was Dr. John I. Gallin, director of the Clinical Center. He's seen the Clinical Center through big storms before. But nothing like this.
GALLIN: This one was worse. And it was worse for two reasons. One, the duration of the storm and the severity of the storm. And two, we had more patients in the hospital than we've had in the past. So we were pretty full, and that creates a lot of tension in terms of making sure we don't interrupt the quality of care we give. Which we didn't.
SCHMALFELDT: In all, more than 170 inpatients were being cared for by the Clinical Center staff when the storms hit the Eastern Seaboard. As you might imagine, getting 50 inches of snow over 5 days can cause some logistical difficulties for any medical institution. From Friday, Feb. 5th through Sunday, Feb. 7 during the height of the first storm, the Clinical Center provided beds for 304 employees. Additional support came from the Children's Inn and the Family Lodge. There were also 54 volunteers with 4-wheel drive vehicles who transported folks to and from their homes and the Clinical Center. One of those volunteers – Dr. Gallin.
GALLIN: I had the privilege of driving a few people home, because I have a Jeep. And getting to know these folks is very special. Not only do you get to know them, but they're willing to tell you what's wrong with the place. Sunday I was driving some folks. They said, "You know, it's not fair for us to have to pay for meals if we're here an extra day. So we were able to get vouchers to pay for meals.
SCHMALFELDT: Maureen Gormley, Chief Operating Officer of the Clinical Center, called those vouchers a real morale booster for the staff, many of whom were sheltered in place for the duration.
GORMLEY: That turned out to be wildly successful because people were really just happy that somebody was thinking of them and that when they were staying overnight and away from their families that they at least didn't have to incur the additional expense of food.
SCHMALFELDT: And that wasn't the only morale booster Gormley talked about.
GORMLEY: We were in the office on Monday and Dr. Gallin said it would be really nice if we could do what we did several years ago and give people "blizzard survival t-shirts." So, a couple of folks and I went online and downloaded a little snowman and put the NIH logo on him and made a t-shirt that said "I Survived the 2010 Blizzard at the NIH Clinical Center." We ordered them from a guy up the road and he was able to produce them overnight, and so we handed them out to people during the blizzard. So that was another morale booster.
SCHMALFELDT: Like Dr. Gallin, Gormley couldn't find enough words to praise the dedication of the Clinical Center staff during the crisis.
GORMLEY: When I was back and forth from the hospital during this snow emergency, what I was just astounded by was the level of people keeping their energy high, the commitment and cooperation. It seemed like even though there was a blizzard outside, that there wasn't anything going on inside that would indicate that people were doing anything but focusing on the patients. That cooperation and commitment was really impressive.
SCHMALFELDT: Gormley lauded a number of departments at the Clinical Center -- from the NIH Police who transported a nurse who was slightly injured in the storm to a local hospital and assisted with unlocking room doors to get access for staff that needed places to sleep, to the staff at the Family Lodge who provided a room for a stranded Connecticut family, to the people who run the Clinical Center's cafeteria contract for helping put the food voucher program into place.
GORMLEY: We had everybody online with us. And when we needed something to happen, it would happen.
SCHMALFELDT: And that commitment didn't end at direct patient care, facility maintenance or unlocking doors. Because millions of area residents couldn't even get out of their front doors, let alone make a non-emergency hospital trip, the Blood Center at the Clinical Center found itself in dire straits and in urgent need of donors, according to Dr. Susan Leitman, Chief of the Blood Services Section at the Clinical Center's Department of Transfusion Medicine. Once again, it was Clinical Center staff to the rescue.
LEITMAN: There are essential employees -- the nurses, the doctors, the administrative support staff, the health technologists who have to come to work because patients are there and they need care. And often, those donors will sleep at NIH because they don't think they can make it in the next day if they go home. They're so committed to the support of their patients in any manner possible that they will make the time, even though they're tired and "not in the best mood" to come to the Blood Center to donate red cells or platelets.
SCHMALFELDT: Leitman explained why it's so vital, even during a weather crisis, to have a continuing supply of blood from willing donors.
LEITMAN: Well, it's important to remember that patients go on needing red cells and platelets for transfusion regardless of the weather. Their diseases do not respect the weather. And in order to support them, we need to collect about 40 units of red cells every day and about 12 platelet phoresis donations from kind donors who go onto machines to donate platelets. So the need remains. We can cancel elective surgeries as do most community hospitals, but at the NIH, the vast majority of blood that we collect doesn't go to patients who are undergoing elective surgery. It goes to patients who are undergoing chemotherapy for disorders such as leukemia, lymphomas and other cancers and it goes to patients who are undergoing bone marrow transplants.
SCHMALFELDT: In the days following the Twin Blizzards, the urgent need continued. Local TV stations broadcast the need for blood donors. The Clinical Center utilized all its communications resources, including Facebook and Twitter, to get out the word. Leitman reminded potential donors that NIH is located on two major thoroughfares in Bethesda that are likely to be completely clear of snow, so as soon as it's safe to do so, they should give serious thought to making a trip to the Blood Center to donate. Type O blood is the biggest need at the moment. She suggested that donors call first -- 301-496-1048. That number again – 301-496-1048.
In times of crisis, professionals pull together. And that's what happened during the Snowpocalypse here in Bethesda. Dr. Gallin summed up the team spirit that made itself so evident during the blizzards.
GALLIN: Not only is it the hospital staff, it's all the people who do the buildings and facilities here. They did an extraordinary job. I look out my window now and all the roads on campus are clear.
SCHMALFELDT: For more information about the people who staff the Clinical Center and to learn more about the groundbreaking medical research that goes on here every day, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
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