X-Message-Number: 22560
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 14:12:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Christine Gaspar <>
Subject: re: my SARS update, as taken from a press article

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I wanted to mention a couple of points regarding this article I submitted 
yesterday. 

I work in the ER at North York General. When I submitted updates over the 
summer, it was regarding North York Gen. The parts of this article referring to 
that hospital, validate my earlier submissions, as the investigation that this 
reporter has undertaken, re-iterates many of the concerns I posted in earlier 
cryonet messages. As well, when I spoke of our physician who was in charge of 
the SARS outbreak, in our hospital, I was referring to Dr Mederski, who in this 
article was instructed not to comment, as she is part of a judicial hearing on 
these matters. I did earlier say, as some of you may recall, that over the next 
year there would be hell to pay over this disaster. It looks like I might be 
right- there are more hearings, and investigations than I initially thought. I'm
glad. Apparantly, the College of Nurses in Ontario, sent its members a 
questionnaire, regarding the events of this past year, to fill out as part of 
another investigation. Unfortunately, I did not receive a copy

 of this. I blame it on the mail system in the condo where I live...I have 
 experienced many errors in mail delivery, and I am not entirely confident in 
 the individual who distributes our mail.

As I read this article, I got the sense that the senior management was trying to
say that everyone did their best, and that mistakes were made, but they are 
trying to give the public the idea that no one was intentionally negligent in 
these matters. I disagree. As I have said before, there were those, who were 
decision makers, that were given indisputable evidence that they were dealing 
with a new outbreak. They chose to ignore this evidence, and in fact on some 
occasions, told us we didn't know what we were talking about. I look forward to 
my day in court, when I can demand that those who deserve it, should be held 
fully accountable for their actions.
 

When all is said and done, life in our hospital has changed for good. We screen 
everyone entering the hospital- staff, visitors and patients. All patients and 
visitors must wear masks in our department. Many hospitals in this area no 
longer take these measures. Our triage nurses wear full protective gear at all 
times. Anyone appearing with a fever, and respiratory symptoms is immediately 
isolated. When ever giving care to any patient with such symptoms, our nurses 
and doctors don full protective gear-no exceptions. At least some of us learned 
from this. The hepafilters remain in the rooms we have designated as isolation 
rooms, and the plastic curtains/barriers are still up in these cubicles. We have
a new computerized tracking system, in our department, and a lot of protective 
measures have been incorporated into it- various areas where we can "red flag" 
potentially infectious patients. I am very glad that we have maintained our 
vigilance. At this time, I am aware that many hospitals

 in our area have not maintained these precautions. I hope they do not have to 
 learn these lessons the hard way, like we did- for the sake of all of us.
 
Christine Gaspar



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