It was a really rough day in the “Covid Unit” for Sydnie Boylan, a nurse at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Kaiser Permante Medical Center in Woodland Hills.
Multiple patients. Multiple “code” situations. Not enough masks. Not enough time.
Boylan and a group of Southern California healthy workers described the challenges they face combating the novel coronavirus pandemic during a renewed statewide call on Thursday, April 9, for for more personal protective equipment.
The shortage of PPEs meant difficult choices, she said. That included having to restrict the number of people on the team who respond to a person vulnerable to respiratory failure — and the amount of time they could spend with them.
‘We would spend half an hour or 45 minutes in a room with seven or eight people during a code blue and being able to bring the patient back,” said a stoic Boylan. “Now we have four masks we can have in a room and the lengths of our codes are maybe eight minutes and that’s it. So, it’s terrible. And if you don’t have the right equipment, you have to make life and death decisions.”
Tears started to fall amid her words.
“It’s a horrible feeling to go into a situation where we’ve decided to become healthcare workers to save lives,” she said, “and we shouldn’t have to make the choice not to do it because were are risking our lives. …”
The statewide virtual meeting was part of a push by the state’s unionized frontline workers to urge state and federal government to ramp up the the ability to manufacture and track masks and shields, gowns, hair nets, leg protection and other vital gear, such as ventilators.
Lamenting what they said was federal inaction on the issue, they also urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to help increase production and distribution in the state.
In a letter to Newsom this week, Bob Schoonover, president of SEIU of California, said billions of such supplies are needed across the state for workers such as nurses and lab techs and phsycians — and also the people who clean hospital equipment and people who care for seniors at long-term care facilities.
Newsom on Wednesday said that hundreds of millions of N95 and surgical masks, gowns, face shields and gloves were being procured.
“I know that people are out there wanting and demanding more PPE in real time, not just our healthcare workers, but our grocery workers and front line employees..” he said on Thursday.
“As soon as we get deliveries, we get them right back out. Every day, we are pushing these things out.”
He said over the next three weeks, those supplies will increase.
Union officials say some hospitals have been better than others in hearing the call for PPE and responding.
“The safety of our patients and staff is our top priority,” said Kaiser Permanente Southern California spokesman Terry Kanakri, in a recent statement. “While we currently have the supplies needed to serve our patients and protect our staff, we are prudently managing our resources and aggressively pursuing additional supplies, including masks and ventilators, to respond to the expected rise in demand for our health care services.”
On Thursday, Boylan and her counterparts from Hollywood to Downey to Buena Park offered a snapshot into the conditions they face.
“Will my lack of of protection at work mean my husband will get the disease?” asked Gabe Montoya, emergency medical technician at Kaiser Permanente. “I wonder that every day as I run to the shower from the garage to wash it off. I guarantee every frontline worker is asking similar questions as they go hone to their families.”
Maria Cecilia Lim, a nurse at Healthcare Center of Orange County, described a system that wasn’t prepared for a pandemic. She said there’s concern that patients in longterm facilities whose immune systems are already compromised, will return from hospital stays — where they could be exposed to the virus — to a longterm care facilities, where a shortage of masks and gowns makes staffers and other patients more vulnerable, she said.
Limited supplies led to instances of staff using raincoats and ponchos as alternatives, disinfected four times a day.
“We started making our own masks,” she said, adding that she sewed one from a pillow case.
“We’ve been doing everything we possibly can to limit exposure to the virus, but homemade supplies aren’t going to stop it or slow it,” she said.
“Our supplies are dangerously low,” said Gary Poe, community clinic organizer and benefits counselor at St. John’s Well Child & Family Center in South L.A.
Going to work isn’t easy these days. His family says: “Be careful.”
“They worry,” he said. “In all honesty, I worry, too.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
