Short Wave - When The Military Fights A Pandemic At Home

Episode Date: April 17, 2020

Last Tuesday, the military helped evacuate dozens of critically ill COVID-19 patients from overwhelmed hospitals in Queens. NPR's Rebecca Hersher says what happened that night shows how training for war does — and does not — prepare members of the armed services for a pandemic at home. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. So this story begins in Queens on the evening of Tuesday, April 7th. Queens is a borough in New York City. Like a lot of New York, Queens is generally very dense. And a lot of people who live in Queens are essential workers, people who work in health care at retail stores that are still open, in transportation and construction jobs. And Queens has been here. hit really hard by the pandemic. So the number of cases in Queens has been really high and multiple hospitals there have been either filled or overfilled, meaning they don't have enough beds and

staff for everyone who arrives. So that Tuesday evening, this is according to the city's Department of Emergency Management, one of those hospitals, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, had a problem. The oxygen system for the hospital was acting up. And it became clear that there were too many critically ill people hooked up to it, like using oxygen all at once, because it wasn't designed for that many people, and it was in danger of failing, which would mean that people who were relying on the oxygen could die. So, okay, what did the hospital do? Like, could they get additional oxygen or move the patients to a hospital in another

borough that isn't at capacity? They needed to do that, but these patients, they were really sick. They were all on ventilators. Moving them safely was difficult. And to make matters worse, another hospital in Queens also had the same problem that night. So in all, there were 26 patients who needed to be evacuated, basically, from these hospitals. And remember, the hospitals are already overwhelmed. They don't have extra staff to get these patients ready to be transported, to monitor them as they're being transported,

to figure out where to take them even. Right, right. It's like, it's a mess. Exactly. So the hospitals sound the alarm to city health officials and basically say, this is an emergency. We need help. And the help that came was soldiers. So across the city at a convention center, which is a temporary hospital right now, Army doctors got on the phone with doctors at the hospital and they made a plan, a coordinated effort by multiple branches of the military to evacuate these patients

and get them somewhere with enough oxygen before it was. too late. I'm Maddie Safaya here with NPR science reporter Rebecca Herscher. Today on the show, one night in New York City, how troops from three branches of the military came together to help some really sick patients. It's a window into how training for war does and does not prepare you for a pandemic at home. Okay, so today we're talking about how the military is helping out with the coronavirus outbreak in New York City. Becky, what are they actually doing? At first, it was a real range of stuff that the soldiers who came to New York seemed to be doing. The National Guard was setting up cots. They were putting swabs and other materials into plastic baggies for drive-through coronavirus

testing sites. The Marines were in town. The Army was in town. The Navy showed up with a giant hospital ship with like 1,200 sailors. The governor of New York kept thanking the military and talking about military medical personnel. Right. I remember seeing those pictures of the USNS comfort, a Navy hospital ship floating past the Statue of Liberty. Right. And the ship is a floating hospital. It actually has dozens of fully equipped, fully staffed, ICU beds on board, exactly the kind of beds that those patients in Queens that were running low on oxygen that they needed. I talked to the commanding officer of the ship about that day. His name is Captain Patrick Amersbach. He said the ship was already expecting seven or eight patients that evening from other New York hospitals.

So that's what we were preparing for when the call. So the first thing they had to do was postpone those patients to free up the staff to receive patients from Queens. So we could focus on those that were in a much more dire situation. And then they had to decide how many critically ill patients they could safely receive. We decided on a number which was 10. 10, 10 patients. So about a third of the total number who needed to be evacuated from Queens.

Exactly. And the other patients were going to go to other hospitals on land, mostly in New York City. And one reason Captain Amersbach and his team decided that 10 was the number was because although the hospital on the ship is pretty normal, pretty similar to a hospital on land, the big difference is what it takes to bring patients on board. That is correct. So, you know, unlike a regular hospital where you can pull up to the. emergency department and the EDs there, transport teams are right there. We rely on ramps to move our patients. So it's just a lot more involved than it would be at a normal emergency department.

So they are brought in basically towards the front of the ship. They have to go up multiple ramps and then all the way to the very path or to the very back the ship and then processed in. So it does take time for that actual physical movement of each patient. So the sailors on the ship tell the Army folks over at the convention center, the ones who initially answered that call for help. Okay, bring them to us. Bring us those 10 patients. Okay, so sailors on board the ship are getting ready for these patients, naval doctors and nurses on the ship who have to help get the patients on board and then treat them. But how does the Army get the patients from the hospital and Queens to the Navy hospital ship?

Right. So Army officers call their soldiers and say, We have a mission. And I just want to imagine this for a moment from the point of view of those soldiers. I talked to a young sergeant who went out that night. Yes, ma'am. My name is Sergeant Lavignia Stanley. I'm from Fort Hood, Texas. I'm a 68 Victor, which is a respiratory therapist.

And I've been doing that for approximately four years now. Sergeant Stanley was at the laundromat near the convention center on Tuesday evening. I was washing clothes. When her boss calls her and says, basically, get ready. We got called into the at work in 30 minutes. At work, like in uniform, at the convention center, ready to go. And when she gets there, her boss explains what's happening. That the oxygen systems had failed at these hospitals,

that there are dozens of really sick patients on ventilators who need to be moved. And each respiratory therapist, including Sergeant Stanley, is going to be paired with an army nurse, and the two of them will be assigned to an ambulance with a paramedic and a driver. So Sergeant Stanley, she's never done anything like this. before. She usually treats soldiers and their families on base, the same way as civilian doctor treats people at a clinic.

This is her first time in New York. She'd never worked on an ambulance before, so there was a lot running through her mind. Oh my God. What am we going to do? What is this entail? So I was pretty excited at the same time, but at the same time, I was

nervous. So she gets in this ambulance, and they drive to Queens. Yeah, it takes about half an hour. And she says she was curious to see the city on the drive, but all she could see out the back window of the ambulance was another ambulance. Not a great tour. Okay. So what happened when she got to the hospital? She says the ICU was really hectic. There weren't enough people to treat all the patients. And this is one reason that military medical workers are in New York to be there in these really overwhelmed

moments when there aren't enough nurses in an ICU to handle everything that needs to happen. Because treating people who have really serious cases of COVID-19 is really labor-intensive, and moving them is even more labor-intensive. Sergeant Stanley thinks it took about an hour to get the patient ready to go and into the ambulance. Wow. Okay. So the medical military folks are helping evacuate patients from the hospitals. But I have to imagine this took like a lot of logistical work from non-medical folks, too. You're totally right. And there are thousands of soldiers and sailors and Marines without medical training who are deployed for coronavirus with all the risk that that entails. And in fact, a lot of the logistical stuff that has to happen to handle a pandemic

is really similar to the stuff that the military already trains for during war. Hmm. War is really logistical. And there's this really good example of this from this night last week. An example of a boring logistical thing that members of the armed forces were prepared for? Exactly. And it involves yet another branch of the military. the Marines. Yes, ma'am. I am the Lima Company commander as part of 3rd Battalion Second Marines. So this is another person I talked to, Captain Peter Hoffenga. He and his Marines are usually at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. And we typically trained and prepare for deployments, obviously typically abroad. The past year, we've spent preparing to go to Afghanistan.

When was he supposed to go to Afghanistan? This week. Oh, this week. Okay. But as the world adjusted and shifted to this emerging situation, we were fortunate enough to be selected and answer the call to support our fellow Americans up here in New York City. So what's the role for him and his Marines in this rescue mission? Well, one thing that his Marines are really good at is setting up checkpoints. So they're running the checkpoint on the pier next to that Navy hospital ship. Checking IDs, keeping track of who comes and goes. What else? Well, remember, they train for combat.

They train for situations where there are multiple people who are hurt at once. And so last week when 10 ambulances with 10 patients were coming from hospitals and Queens to the ship, that was a situation that the Marines were actually ready to help with. Now, ideally, and this is according to both Captain Hoffinga and the captain of the ship, ideally the ambulances would have been spaced out. Right. So that there was time. Because remember, it takes a little while to get patients onboard.

the ship, but that didn't happen. So when did you realize that you weren't going to have that time in between ambulances? Yeah, more or less when they arrived, which is okay. Becky, that sounds like a guy who's used to stuff going a little bit wrong. You know what I mean? Yes, exactly. I think that's the definition of being in the military, being ready for things to go a little bit wrong.

And that was the ship's commander, Captain Amersbach. So he sounded like he was pretty used to it. So all 10 patients show up at the same time to the ship. You've got the Army nurses and respiratory therapists on the ambulances, stabilizing the patients. And then you have the Marines at the checkpoint on the pier, plus the Navy doctors and nurses on the ship ready to treat those patients when they're on board. Yeah. And I think when we talk about the role of the military in the coronavirus response, this moment actually tells you a lot. Because the military's role is to support civilian workers.

support, not takeover. And everything about this moment shows that. Like the army soldiers in the ambulances, they're working alongside paramedics from the city fire department. The Marines at the checkpoint, they're working with the NYPD, the police. And the Navy ship, it's taking patients that the hospital cannot treat. So Navy doctors and nurses are the backup for the civilian doctors and nurses. Amazing. But, okay, Becky, what happens? Ten ambulances just showed up at the pier with 10 very sick patients on ventilators. I know, the suspense. It's really hectic.

Each ambulance gets a team from the ship who's responsible for getting them on board. At one point, one of the patients looks like they might die. They're crashing. Basically, heart rate and oxygen levels are not good. They move that patient to the front of the line, figure out that some of the ambulances don't have enough oxygen. That's part of the problem. Oh, my gosh.

So Captain Hoffinger sends Marines. They run up the line. ramps onto the ship and run back with tanks of oxygen. Each marine would kind of grab one and run. Ironically, we conduct every year we have to take a combat fitness test and there's an 800 meter sprint. And so this kind of actually, they trained for that to run. And that's what we do, right?

Carry heavy stuff fast and help solve problems in chaotic situations. I love that. I love that. Yeah. In the end, the commander of the ship says everyone got on board safely and as of a week later, All 10 people who arrived that night were still alive. Amazing.

I mean, this is nice because I think the news coming out of New York City has been really tough. And it's nice to be reminded of all the good people they're risking their lives to save lives. Yeah. I mean, the military is, frankly, really good at this kind of thing. Okay, Becky. I appreciate you. Thanks for bringing us this story. Yeah, thanks so much, Manny.

This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez, edited by Viet Le and fact-checked by Emily Vaugh. I'm Maddie Safaya. Thanks for listening to NPR's shortwave. Oh, and before you go, make sure to subscribe to this podcast. To make sure that you get new episodes as soon as they're available, which you want.