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SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2020 • SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA • PRESSDEMOCRAT.COM

Nurse details ‘COVID floor’ fears

Kaiser workers provide
own N95 masks, ‘share a
sense of impending doom’
By AUSTIN MURPHY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
She works as a nurse at Santa Ro-
sa’s Kaiser Permanente hospital, in
a unit normally reserved for surgical
and cardiac patients. Even in ordi-
nary times, her job is plenty stressful.
“Bad things can happen, people
can die,” said the woman. She asked
that her name not be used in this
story, for fear of retaliation from her
superiors.
Her stress, along with that of her
colleagues, has spiked since late
February, when their wing became
the hospital’s “COVID floor,” where
patients diagnosed with the dreaded,
sometimes deadly new coronavirus
are treated.
Every member of the Kaiser med-
ical team performing this heroic,
lifesaving work risks contracting the
contagion that has killed more than
8,100 in this country, upended daily
life and brought the world’s largest
economy to its knees.
Nine or 10 patients are typically on
this secure hospital floor. Some are
COVID-19 positive. Some are await-
ing the results of tests to determine
whether or not the are positive for
the coronavirus, which has infected
107 people in Sonoma County, killing
one man.
The situation at Kaiser is serious
but not dire. For now.
“A lot of us share a sense of im-
pending doom,” the nurse said.
“When is the tsunami going to hit? We
feel that weight on our shoulders.”
Before and in the weeks following
the March 2 announcement of the
first local case of coronavirus, The
Press Democrat has sought multiple
INSIDE
times to visit Kaiser and the county’s
■ County health
officials advise all
two other main hospitals, to speak
with nurses, doctors and adminis-
residents to wear
face covering if
trators about their preparations for outside / A3
treating stricken patients, and how
health care workers are being pro- ■ Builders press
tected from the highly contagious ahead with work
pathogen. While answering some in SR’s Coffey
virus-related questions almost dai- Park area / A3
ly from the newspaper’s reporters ■ Trump warns
since late February, hospital officials US faces ‘toughest’
have rebuffed requests for interviews weeks yet in
coronavirus
TURN TO NURSE » PAGE A13 outbreak / A7

“I was just hoping I’d get to breathe ... We’re just caught in that netherland, CORONAVIRUS

US failed
that thin space between knowing and not knowing.”

Testing delays leaving

JULIE HULL, retired public defender who moved from Chicago to Rohnert Park and is waiting for the results of her COVID-19 test

to heed
alarms
patients in ‘netherland’ early on
No help from China on
test, Trump’s reelection
fears led to costly delays
By YASMEEN ABUTALEB,
JOSH DAWSEY, GREG MILLER
AND ELLEN NAKASHIMA
WASHINGTON POST

By the time Donald Trump

proclaimed himself a wartime
president — and the corona-
virus the enemy — the United
States was already on course to
see more of its people die than
in the wars of Korea, Vietnam,
Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
The country has adopted an
array of wartime measures nev-
er employed collectively in U.S.
history — banning incoming
travelers from two continents,
bringing commerce to a near-
halt, enlisting industry to make
emergency medical gear and
confining 230 million Ameri-
cans to their homes in a desper-
ate bid to survive an attack by
an unseen adversary.
Despite these and other ex-
treme steps, the United States
will likely go down as the coun-
try that was supposedly best
prepared to fight a pandemic
but ended up catastrophically
overmatched by the novel coro-
JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
navirus, sustaining heavier ca-
Julie Hull of Rohnert Park was tested for COVID-19 on March 26 and is still waiting to find out if she has the virus even as she is feeling better. sualties than any other nation.
It did not have to happen this

People with By MARY CALLAHAN

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
she said.
But Cramer, 42, who wasn’t even approved for TURN TO ALARMS » PAGE A10

S
COVID-19
testing until she developed pancreatitis on top of the
anta Rosa resident Kelly Cramer had been sick worst respiratory illness of her life, said the emotion-

symptoms
for three weeks, hospitalized for half that time al toll of confinement and separation from her chil-
and already was back at home for three days, in dren in the midst of a terrifying global pandemic was
INSIDE
an empty house, before she learned the result of her as severe as the physical discomfort she endured.
wait as COVID-19 test.
It was negative, but it hardly
Thirteen days had elapsed when
CORONAVIRUS IN SONOMA COUNTY she got the report on her results.
long as 13 mattered at that point.
She’d been kept apart from her
See charts and maps about COVID-19 at
pressdemocrat.com/covid-dashboard
“Not knowing that I possibly
had it and could have infected my

days to find three teenage kids for two weeks

and had been held in isolation at Santa Rosa Memo-
children — that weighs heavily on
a mother’s heart,” she said.

out if they
rial Hospital while everyone awaited her test results. Cramer is among thousands of Californians,
She checked herself out at the end of 10 days when including many in Sonoma County, who have been

are positive
waiting was all that was left to do.
The hospital staff had used scarce protective gear
every time they entered her room, and though they
were gracious and kind in every way, it was clear
they were frustrated as well over the lengthy wait,
trapped in the same waiting game amid what’s al-
ready a brutally uncertain time in the age of the new
coronavirus.
TURN TO TESTS » PAGE A12

Pandemic upends funerals for county residents MAKING A DIFFERENCE:

From doctors and nurses
to grocery workers and
school officials, so many
By WILL SCHMITT a memorial service — that’s on
people are coming to aid of
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT hold due to the coronavirus pan-
community amid crisis / M1
demic.
Gary Patterson will live on “Nobody’s going to want to SANTA ROSA
in life-partner Phil Edinger’s come to anything that I might High 56, Low 37
memory as a lanky, neat, self- schedule soon,” Edinger said
deprecating storyteller. Their in an interview Monday. “Nor THE WEATHER, C4
paths crossed at Cal Poly Pomo- would I necessarily want to have
na more than 50 years ago, notic- anybody coming.” Business E1 Lotto A2
ing each other in a landscape de- Any traditional memori- Classified E4 Nevius C1
sign class before Edinger made a al service would have, until Community B8 Obituaries B4
move. They would go on to buy Wednesday, run afoul of Sono- Crossword C3 Sonoma Life D1
a home near the Asti Winery in ma County’s shelter-in-place Forum B8 Smith A3
the late 1960s, living many happy order, which aims to curb the Golis B1 Towns T1
years together, even through a spread of COVID-19, the respi-
neuropathy that debilitated Pat- ratory disease caused by the
PHIL EDINGER terson in his final years. coronavirus. County officials,
Gary Patterson, right, joins his partner, Phil Edinger, and their dog, Felix, Patterson, 80, died March 15 in their first order, called out
for a photo in 1995. Patterson died March 15 of neuropathy, and Edinger and his body has been cremated,
has postponed his memorial service because of the pandemic. though Edinger hasn’t planned TURN TO FUNERALS » PAGE A2 ©2020 The Press Democrat
A12 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2020

Test processing times vary for Kaiser, Quest facilities

S
onoma County’s COVID-19
tests are being processed
about equally by the
county public health lab, Kaiser
Permananente’s in-house lab
and Quest Diagnostics.
Quest accepts tests from the
broadest range of patients but,
as the first private lab to offer
testing for coronavirus, is still
trying to catch up after its ca-
pacity was overwhelmed in the
early weeks of the outbreak. It
claims an average turnaround
time of four to five days for
results but has often taken 10 to
13 days.
Kaiser Permanente runs
its members’ tests in-house,
returning results within about
12 hours, a spokesman said.
But it tests only those in high-
priority categories, including
hospitalized patients with
signs and symptoms of the
disease; symptomatic older
adults and individuals with
chronic medical conditions or
compromised immune systems
that put them at risk for poor
outcomes; and health care
personnel with exposure to a
suspected or confirmed case
within 14 days before the onset
of symptoms or who have a
history of travel from affected
geographic areas within 14 days
of their symptom onset.
The county health lab can
conduct up to 100 tests a day
with a turnaround time of
24 hours or less, but its tests are
reserved for the highest-priori-
ty patients, identified as individ-
uals with signs and symptoms
(fever not always present) com-
patible with COVID-19 and:
■ Hospitalized and signifi-
cantly ill
■ Health care personnel
including first responders with
direct contact with patients
■ All other first responders
(i.e., fire and law enforcement)
■ Lives in or works at a long-
term care facility
■ Chronically homeless
■ Inmate or works at a jail or
prison
Contact Sonoma Public
Health at 707-565-4566 for test-
ing consultation of individuals
that meet the above criteria.
Testing of asymptomatic indi-
viduals is not recommended.

TESTS Many of those tests, and

perhaps most, were being
handled by Quest Diagnos-
response to the coronavirus
since it began to spread in
the nation two months ago.
CONTINUED FROM A1 tics, which launched private Lab tests at that time were
nationwide testing from a virtually impossible to come
The nationwide problems single lab March 9 and was by, because of flaws in the
with testing, including a quickly overwhelmed by initial round of technology
shortage of kits, delays in demand. produced at the Centers for
results and concerns about The company has in- Disease Control.
accuracy, have hampered creased its capacity to field The nation’s capacity
health officials’ ability to lab samples substantially for testing has gradually
more precisely gauge the since then. It now processes ramped up since then but
shape of the outbreak and about 30,000 a day, meeting continues to lag behind
order more targeted inter- and even surpassing de- other countries and behind
ventions. mand on some days, it said. the ideal rate that medical
At a Saturday news con- At Healdsburg District officials believe is necessary
ference, Gov. Gavin New- Hospital, test results were to reveal the scope of the
som vowed to increase the coming back from Quest outbreak and target inter-
number of tests conducted more quickly over the past ventions.
in the state “by fivefold” and week than they had been, Shortages of necessary
said far too few Californians closer to three or four materials, in particular
have been tested for the days, said Gina Fabiano, a the swabs used to collect
virus. spokeswoman for the North respiratory secretions from
As of Saturday, more Sonoma County Health the back of a person’s nose
than 126,700 people had District, which operates and throat for testing, and
been tested for COVID-19 the hospital. It was possible now, the chemical reagents
across the state, including that a new feature allowing used to free the genetic ma-
2,271 in Sonoma County, a hospital personnel to log terial from specimen for the
volume of testing the gover- into the Quest system and testing process, have also
nor said “may sound high retrieve the results had interfered with lab capacity.
to some, it is low to many facilitated the improvement, A Utah-based lab, Associ-
others, and certainly to me.” she said. ated Regional and Univer-
“The testing space has But last week, Quest still sity Pathologists, Inc., or
been a challenging one for had a backlog of 115,000 ARUP, had been processing
us, and I own that, I have a tests, according to a compa- tests for facilities outside
responsibility as governor ny news release. the state, including Healds-
to do more testing in Cali- Quest nonetheless is tout- burg District Hospital, until
fornia,” Newsom said. ing an average turnaround mid-March, when it had to
Newsom said Califor- time of four to five days restrict its services to Utah
nians would soon be able from the point of specimen only because of limited
to have blood-based tests pickup. It said top-priority reagent supply.
with quick turnaround of cases — individuals who are Also, evidence is mount-
between 5 and 15 minutes. either hospitalized patients ing that tests have a high
He also said the University or symptomatic health care false-positive rate, meaning
of California campuses at workers — could be tested individuals who suffer fever,
Davis and San Diego are through a special program coughing, sore throat and
helping the state develop in an average time of two to some of the other symptoms
high-output testing hubs. three days and sometimes in of COVID-19 but test neg-
A better, quicker and less than 24 hours. JOHN BURGESS / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT ative. Many may actually
more reliable testing regi- “We appreciate the frus- Paul LeMay of Petaluma was tested for COVID-19 on March 23 after attending a conference have been infected with
men, also would help return tration of waiting for a test in Seattle. He received a negative result on April 1. coronavirus even if the test
those who prove not to have result, and our laboratories did not show it.
the disease to their families are performing COVID-19 risk for poor outcomes; and “The sensitivity of the
and to work — a key step to tests 24/7 to provide testing BREAKING DOWN SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS health care personnel with test is maybe 70%,” meaning
help keep households and as quickly as possible,” the exposure to a suspected as many as 30% of cases
Sonoma County public health officials continue to urge
essential services up and company said in a state- or confirmed case within might be missed, said Dr.
residents to call their doctor if they are ill, think they have
running during a prolonged ment. 14 days before the onset of Nurit Licht, chief medical
flu-like symptoms and want to learn whether they should be
pandemic. Chris Denny, founder of symptoms or who have a officer for the nonprofit
tested for coronavirus.
Dr. Sundari Mase, Sono- The Engine is Red, a Santa history of travel from affect- Petaluma Health Center.
ma County’s health officer, Rosa branding, advertising
said closing the testing time and web development com-
107 1 107 ed geographic areas within
14 days of their symptom
Increasingly, patients
who otherwise present with
lag would help to better pany, endured an eight-day
Total cases
as of Saturday
Deaths
as of Saturday
(4%) onset. symptoms of the virus are
track the outbreak locally wait that meant adding the Positive results The county health lab, advised to presume they
and hone in on clusters of
cases that could halt the
agony of extended anxiety
to an already heavy load of
83 23 2,302
meanwhile, can conduct
up to 100 tests a day with
have it and isolate accord-
ingly.
virus’ spread. family isolation, physical Active cases Recovered a turnaround time of 24 Thus Petaluma resident
“I really would like to see illness and “economic ca- as of Saturday as of Saturday (96%) hours or less, and is run- Paul LeMay, who fell ill in
a turnaround time of 24 to
48 hours, which is what we
tastrophe that’s happening
simultaneously.” 2,409 Negative results ning well below its capacity, mid-March after attending
averaging about 40 per day, a conference earlier in the
would expect, and what our Julie Hull, a retired Tests finished county spokeswoman Jenni- month in Seattle, an early
public health lab and Kaiser public defender who moved as of Saturday fer Larocque said. coronavirus hot spot, de-
are able to do,” Mase said. from Chicago to Rohnert But its tests are reserved layed bringing his son back
The county lab and Park last year, described INFECTIONS IN COUNTY BY REGION for the highest-priority into the house he shares
Kaiser Permanente each the not knowing as living in patients: individuals with with his girlfriend, who also
handle about a third of the
testing in Sonoma County,
some kind of “netherland.”
On Friday, she was wait-
16 15 49 signs and symptoms com-
patible with COVID-19 who
got sick. His test result final-
ly came back negative after
with Quest Diagnostics, the ing to find out about a test North East Central also are hospitalized and nine days of waiting.
large commercial lab that she had nine days earlier (Windsor north (Kenwood, Glen (Santa Rosa, significantly ill; or who are LeMay, 57, said his illness
ran Cramer’s test, picking in the emergency room at to Cloverdale) Ellen, Sonoma) Rohnert Park, health care personnel or had been relatively mild,
Cotati)
up the other third, a county Petaluma Valley Hospital.
13 13 first responders with direct despite three or four days
spokeswoman said. Sutter Hull, 66, had gone to
Health also is sending some the hospital late one night South West 1 patient contact; law enforce- in which a walk from the
ment or firefighters; people living room to the kitchen
specimens to an in-house because she couldn’t stop (Penngrove, (Sebastopol, Under who live or work in long- would require him to stop
lab in Oregon. coughing and couldn’t fill Petaluma) Guerneville) investigation term care facilities; chron- and rest.
Sonoma County so far her lungs ically homeless people; or “I’d run out of breath,”
had reported 107 positive “I was just hoping I’d jail inmates and employees. he said.
VIRUS CASES IN COUNTY BY AGE Nearly 2,000 tests have been
COVID-19 cases by Saturday get to breathe and maybe But his doctor advised,
night and one death. The
county lab has conducted
find out if I was a danger to
others,” she said.
4 54 30 19 0 run at the county lab so far. and his son’s mother insist-
“We’re having all our ed, that he behave as if he
0-17 18-49 50-64 65+ Unknown priority patients, the ones
around 2,200 tests, but since She was treated for acute had in fact had the virus
it only receives positive bronchitis and tested for the that are on that list of crite- and complete 14 days of
results from the other labs, highly infectious new virus. VIRUS CASES IN COUNTY BY MALE, FEMALE ria, go to our public health quarantine and then some,
it’s not clear how many She was told to expect the lab,” Mase said, the county just to be sure.
COVID-19 tests overall have results in three to five days, 48 59 health officer. “So I feel “I’d feel better if I had a
been run for Sonoma Coun- which suggested she would Male Female better that people who are second test,” he said.
ty residents. have known by the begin- maybe most likely to have Licht, the Petaluma
The return time is also ning of last week. HISTORY OF HOSPITALIZATION COVID, their samples aren’t Health Center chief medical
highly variable, with the “We’re just caught in that Yes: 20 (19%) going to Quest.” officer, pointed to a difficult
fastest time occurring at netherland, that thin space The high threshold that convergence of factors
Kaiser’s in-house lab, which between knowing and not No: 86 (80%) helps keep Kaiser’s return for Americans, who are
has a turnaround time of knowing,” Hull said. Unknown: 1 (1%) time low creates its own culturally inclined to look
about 12 hours, a spokes- In terms of patient care problems for people like to testing for guidance and
man said. The public health and treatment, it probably Sources: Sonoma County health department; Centers for Disease Fulton resident Grace comfort and have the re-
Control and Prevention; Press Democrat reporting
lab usually reports results doesn’t matter a great deal, Graylow, who was denied sources as a nation to make
within about 24 hours. clinicians said. There is a test even though she desired testing possible, and
Many patients in Sonoma no cure for COVID-19, and Valley hospitals, among Quest accepts tests from became ill after her adult yet have been caught short.
County and elsewhere, how- medical practitioners are others. “That being said, the the broadest range of daughter tested positive for Rapid, point-of-care
ever, have waited a week, 10 providing the same support- result of a laboratory test is patients, including those COVID-19, got pneumonia testing capable of producing
days, even 13, like Cramer, ive care for the symptoms only part of what we do for considered low priority and had to be sent home results within minutes ap-
to hear back from Quest that they would whether or the care of the patient and by the Centers for Disease with oxygen. pears to be on the horizon,
Across the state, results not the virus were present, our caregivers. We contin- Control and who would be Graylow, 58, looks after though it will be prioritized
remained unknown Friday in most cases. And individu- ue to provide appropriate, declined testing in most her young grandson in her for hospital settings first,
for nearly two-thirds of als who are not hospitalized, medically indicated care cases by Kaiser and county home and, luckily, he never she said.
the patient specimens which is most, should be regardless of diagnosis.” health. appeared ill. And her own But rapid testing that
collected for testing since resting, sheltering in place Local testing protocols Kaiser Permanente runs symptoms were relatively can be done accurately,
the outbreak began at the and generally avoiding con- are designed to provide for its members’ tests in-house, mild, though her face was widely and a second time,
end of January. While tact with others if they are the fastest turnaround in returning results within extremely hot and tingly if needed, is the best way to
more than 35,000 results sick, whether or not they cases that are considered about 12 hours, spokesman and “she just wanted to persuade people to isolate,
had been reported to the test positive for coronavirus. highest risk, either because David Ebright said. But it sleep every second.” to know where the spread
California Department of “We acknowledge that the patient is particularly tests only those in high-pri- “We have a guest house, is occurring and to catch it,
Public Health as of Friday, it is hard for our patients vulnerable due to age or un- ority categories, including so I’ve been able to isolate she said.
59,500 were still pending, and caregivers to not have derlying medical problems, hospitalized patients with here alone,” she said, but “I think it’s coming,”
the agency reported. On immediate results,” said or because their interaction signs and symptoms of the she was getting ready to Licht said. “I think it’s com-
Saturday, that number of Christina Harris, commu- with other vulnerable peo- disease; symptomatic older scrub and sanitize the main ing. It just seems like it can’t
pending tests had dropped nication manager for St. ple or work in an essential adults and individuals with house so she could welcome come quickly enough.”
to 13,000, a sharp reduction Joseph Health, Northern community role puts them chronic medical conditions her grandson again.
that could not immediately California, which runs at high risk of spreading the or compromised immune The shortfall in testing Staff Writer Julie Johnson
be explained. Memorial and Petaluma virus. systems that put them at has undercut the U.S. contributed to this report.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2020
NURSE
CONTINUED FROM A1
inside the medical centers.
This is the first report since
the start of the outbreak in Sono-
ma County from on the front line
inside one of those hospitals.
Surge of patients expected
The woman works with a tight-
knit group of nurses who refer to
one another as “battle buddies”
and “COVID warriors.” They see
themselves as they are seen by
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
who has described health care
workers as the front-line soldiers
in the war against this invisible
enemy that’s brought disease
and death to every corner of the
globe. Their battle — made more
difficult, the nurse contends, by
Kaiser hospital management’s
reluctance to provide them with
proper protective equipment —
has changed everything from
where they sleep to how they do
their jobs and how they interact
with loved ones.
Specifically, the nurse said she
and her colleagues on the COVID
floor are unhappy the hospital
does not provide them with N95
respirator masks, even though
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention lists those masks
as “preferred” protective equip-
ment, unless they aren’t avail-
able.
“They’re still telling us sur-
gical masks are sufficient,” she
said.
Kaiser senior vice president
and area manager Tarek Sala-
way and Dr. Michael Shulman,
the Santa Rosa hospital’s phy-
sician in chief, said in a state-
ment Saturday their institution
is “aligned with the most up-to-
date evidence-based science,”
and uses the same standards for
personal protective equipment
“as other hospital systems in Cal-
ifornia and across the nation.”
The hospital’s reluctance to
provide nurses with N95s is
based on “thoughtful consider-
ation for the current global sup-
ply shortages and the surge of
additional patients we expect in
coming weeks,” they said.
‘Don’t want to take her down’
The nurse still calls on her
nearly 90-year-old mother, but
dons a mask before each visit.
But they don’t hug, and sit at
least 6 feet apart while catching
A13
stores of protective equipment
“now and over the long run.”
“By using the appropriate PPE
when medically indicated, per
CDC guidelines, we will help to
ensure these supplies remain
available over the course of this
pandemic,” they said in their
statement.
Forced to provide their own
N95 masks, the COVID floor
nurses keep a stash of them, do-
nated by friends, in their lockers,
sharing them with nurses from
other units who sometimes work
a shift on the COVID floor.
“We feel like we’re fighting for
our lives instead of trying to save
others,” the nurse said.
Gnawing fear
Even in normal times, Kaiser
nurses work with “isolation”
patients who require the same
stepped-up protocols. “This is
our jam, we know what we’re
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
doing,” the nurse said. But the
coronavirus has added a level of
A screening site for coronavirus was under construction on March 18 at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa gnawing fear.
Medical Center in Santa Rosa. Hospital officials are expecting a surge of patients in the coming weeks. She covers her hair on the job,
up. “And then she bleaches ev- who’d contracted it aboard the in the room if we can help it.” “but what if a viral particle land-
erything I’ve touched or sit on,” Diamond Princess cruise ship Nurses accustomed to dispens- ed there anyway? I could touch
she said. “She’s in good health. in Japan and was transferred to ing comfort, along with pills, are my hair, then touch my face, and
She’s amazing. I don’t want to Kaiser in Santa Rosa from quar- learning to cut those exchanges now I’ve got the virus.”
take her down.” antine at Travis Air Force Base. short. At the end of a shift she’ll leave
The nurse communicates on Nearly six weeks later, the nurse Where she once would have her scrubs at work, to be laun-
Facebook groups with nurses remains shaken by the way the sat and held the hand of a fright- dered. After bleaching her shoes,
from around the country, in- virus has forced her and her col- ened, crying patient, “Now I she’ll wear flip-flops to her car.
cluding New York, where over leagues to harden their hearts can’t stay in the room. I have to Her fellow warriors have gone
3,500 patients have died, and when ministering to the sick. get out. I’m trying to limit my ex- to extreme lengths to ensure the
where overwhelmed medical posure.” safety of their families.
staff are contracting the corona- Clustered care Before leaving the room, nurs- One nurse stayed in a hotel, for
virus in large numbers. She and “Our flow of care is different,” es strip off their gloves and plas- days at a time, to make sure she
her Kaiser Santa Rosa colleagues she said. Nurses or their aides tic gowns, dropping them in a red didn’t bring the virus home to
have seen the steady rise of make hourly checks on patients, biohazard bag. Stepping outside, her twin babies. Another sleeps
COVID-19 patients. They’ve read in normal times. Now they’re they close the door, “foam” their in the family’s granny unit. Still
about computer models project- limited to once or twice per hands, don new gloves, then wipe another crashed in the family’s
ing that over 1,500 Sonoma Coun- eight-hour shift. They explain to down their Kaiser-issued gog- camper van, which her husband
ty residents could require hospi- patients that “we’re not coming gles — ill-fitting “cheapies from stocked with snacks and good
talization when infections reach into this room unless we abso- the hardware store,” is how the wine. “She waved at her kids
their peak in about two months. lutely have to, for everybody’s nurse described hers. through the window,” the nurse
They know the Kaiser hospi- protection,” the nurse said. The Over their snug-fitting N95 said.
tal in San Jose, 110 miles south, doors to those rooms remain respiratory masks, the Kaiser Meanwhile, all of them await
has been hard hit. Dr. Stephen closed at all times. nurses wear a more loose-fitting a surge of cases that could range
Parodi, a Kaiser executive vice Some of the patients under- surgical mask. Upon leaving a from moderate to severe.
president and infectious disease stand why this is necessary. Oth- patient’s room, they’ll hang the The nurse recently skimmed a
expert, on March 19 told the ers don’t. “Some are depressed, latter mask on a hook on the wall 272-page document on how med-
Journal of the American Med- and some get confused. They — but only after wiping down the ical experts will use “sequential
ical Association that 242-bed don’t get it at all,” she said. wall with disinfectant. organ failure assessments” to
South Bay hospital was almost Under normal circumstances, It remains a sore point among determine which critically ill
half-filled with coronavirus pa- patients get their antibiotics on a the nurses that they must pro- patients will get a ventilator, and
tients. Asked Friday for an up- strict schedule. These days, on the vide their own N95 masks. “We which will not.
date on the number of COVID-19 COVID floor, they get those meds are told they have enough,” the While the Kaiser nurses won’t
patients there, a spokesman said two or three hours early. During nurse said, “but they are pro- be making those life-or-death
he’d look into it, but provided no that visit, a nurse will assess the jecting at least 1,000 cases (of decisions, should things come to
further information. patient, get their vital signs, bring COVID-19 at the hospital), so such a grim pass, “we are going
“It’s heading our way,” said a meal to them, help them to the they are just being ‘good stew- to be caring for those patients
the nurse, who recalls the ear- toilet, if necessary, then leave. ards.’” when that happens,” she said.
ly morning of Feb. 25, when “We’re trying to cluster all of Indeed, Salaway and Shulman “And it’s going to be heart-
her hospital accepted its first our care, do everything at once,” of Kaiser said their goal is to breaking. We want to save every-
COVID-19 patient, a woman the nurse said, “then not go back ensure the hospital has ample body.”