A Modern Day Pandemic Field Hospital

| April 9, 2020

Example of a patient room in a convention center. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

One of the parallels, between the current pandemic and the one that occurred in 1918-19, is the use of field hospitals. These were set up to deal with the Spanish Flu pandemic overflows. They also converted buildings with large spaces into hospital overflows.

A convention center in Louisiana saw history repeat itself. Now, as a field hospital, it can hold up to 1,000 patients. Recovering patients can be transferred to this hospital in order to free rooms at traditional hospitals to treat more serious cases.

It does appear that Louisiana is on the verge of “flattening the curve”, or are already there. But, they’re prepared to use this hospital just in case.

From Fox News:

A New Orleans convention center was transformed into a makeshift medical center this week to house as many as 1,000 patients recovering from the coronavirus as a means of freeing up beds in hospitals for the critically ill.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a sprawling 1.1 million-square-foot complex normally used for conventions and events, had rows upon rows of pop-up tents spaced out across the floor and nurses’ stations located in between when it opened Monday. The center has the capacity to double its number of beds to 2,000 should the need arise.

“This is going to allow our hospitals to do what they do best — that’s [to] take care of our critically ill patients, and stretch their capacity to have a chance of getting through this,” Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the New Orleans Health Department director, told WDSU-TV.

Fox News has additional information and photos.

Category: COVID-19

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5th/77th FA

Better to have it ready and not need it, than to need it and not have it available…or something. Y’all make sure you click on the linky and check out some of the comments. Like Ex-PH2 has pointed out soooooo many times….some folks are gonna bitch even if you hang them with a brand new rope.

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that each week the media announces that the upcoming week will be the “surge” and we are all to be DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMED! Also the cities that are dem controlled were screaming for help, they got the help, and are still bitching.

George V

I suspect that once economic activity is permitted again that cases will start to percolate again. I ain’t no expert, but it seems to me that once people get out and about again some number of infected people will start to circulate and pass it around again. The trick to me seems to be to allow economic activity but not so much that the health system is overwhelmed. I live near Detroit and it’s not as bad as New York yet but it’s close. Lots of ill nurses and doctors here.

But getting the economy restarted here is now more challenging thanks to our Congress. Local businesses deemed essential, such as a regional bakery, that want to expand production can’t find workers. Some workers are asking to be laid off because they can make more money collecting the new unemployment insurance. You can’t make this sh#t up.

timactual

Of course. You can’t fool mother nature. As the commercial said, “Pay me now, or pay me later”.

“The trick to me seems to be…”

Yep, and nobody knows the correct answer. They just don’t want to admit it. But they (experts and political hacks) all want the power to inflict their solution du jour on us.

11B-Mailclerk

I think the speed at which we adapted to this, especially the war-pivot of manufacturing, and the resilience of the folks to the hassle, should be instructive to any maniacs who think it practical to use disease as a weapon.

Any future such event will go even better for us.

Fjardeson

Well said. Took good ol’ USA a bit to get spun up, but now those big wheels are turning!

timactual

“I think the speed at which we adapted to this,…”

By destroying a good part of our economy? Not to mention the degrading of our military. Not exactly a win on our part.

11B-Mailclerk

If we have to deal with a real bioweapon, with lethality greater than a moderate flu, this is good practice and a demo of consequences.

It is also an object lesson on -over- reaction, and how anti-Americans will exploit and outright lie to damage the USA.

This has exposed a great deal of shitbaggery on the Left.

Roh-Dog

Risk mitigation, getting the virus-bags out of the hospitals to take care of those that have done the right thing is ok by me. As the waves of this thing come and go the fallout will be attenuated. Overall I think there’s been a siiiight overreaction but I’m glad that we’re ahead of this thing.
Side note: that sign is clearly displaying crossed arrows, the branch insignia for Special Forces. I demand to see its DD214 ASAP!

26Limabeans

It was a great exercise in case we ever have a real
pandemic. It was also a great wake up call for
people to see how easily elected officials can
assume powers they do not have and herd you around
like sheep.

Declare ENDEX and write your AAR.

Berliner

From https://mynorthwest.com/1808649/gov-inslee-owes-us-army-an-apology/ :

A week ago, Jay Inslee slammed our federal government for not doing enough for our state.

“The fact is, we cannot get as much help as we would like from the federal government”, he said.

This was a week after the United States Army, under orders from the Trump administration, sent hundreds of soldiers to build a 250-bed hospital at the Century Link Field Events Center.

That hospital has sat empty ever since. Not one patient. On Wednesday, Inslee announced that he wanted the facility disassembled and sent back to the federal government. How much do you think think this assembly and disassembly is costing taxpayers? No one will give me a figure.

Earlier this week, Inslee announced that he is returning 400 ventilators to the feds that we don’t need.

A week ago, he said the administration wasn’t doing enough for our state. Now, it’s clear, they’ve done they’ve done way too much. A person of integrity would apologize for his phony criticism. That apology, of course, will never come.