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Hazmat Crisis
Aug. 13th, 2005 08:22 pm
So t'other day I got a call from C. "What's with the emergency over at the hospital?" she asked.
"Emergency? Hospital? Nobody's called me about any emergency at any hospital." Nor is there any reason why they would, by the way.
C became very obviously patient with me. "It was on the TV news. It's in the paper. Somebody got exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas at one of the facilities out east, and when they got dragged to the hospital it was so bad on the guy's clothes that some of the nurses fainted from it."
I go by the general principle that anything you hear on TV is wrong. Given that I've been quoted in newspapers three times and quoted incorrectly all three, I'm not so sure about the papers either. They seem to have this tendency to change what I actually said into whatever they wish I'd said so that it would make an exciting story. Of course, I'm not complaining about that; I write fiction too. Just not for a living.
And C's phone tips about industrial disasters-- well. I don't entirely trust them either, shall we say. Of course the last time she called me, there really was a problem and we ended up taking some serious action against the place. The problem was not in ANY WAY what she thought it was, but still, it was a useful tip.
"I'll see what I can find out."
"Do that. Please call me back if you discover anything."
So, among the other things I did that day I went to the hospital and asked them what was going on. I met a lot of grim faces, got escorted into a conference room with the entire high brass of the hospital in attendance, and the nice lady who runs the emergency room explained it to me, very carefully.
Seems that some fellow working on an oil well site fell into a "cellar" or pit or some such. Whatever he fell into, he landed in crude oil and/or some other unpleasant gunk.
His co-workers dragged him out and called EMS. EMS ran him to the hospital. This is all well and good. You have to assume being dunked in petroleum products is life-threatening. If it's gasoline, for example, and you don't get it properly cleaned off, the benzene in it will seep through your skin and cause brain and nerve damage. Among other possible problems, such as cancer and the like.
The hospital also did things as they should have. Maybe more than they should have. Since this guy stank when he came in, they hustled him into a side exam room, sealed it off from the rest of the ER, put on their personal protective gear and went into full hazmat decontamination mode. Also, as their procedures required, they called the local fire department and reported the incident.
The FD had its own procedures in place for a hazardous materials release. One of their big things is to prevent any other potential victims from wandering onto the scene. So they scrambled the entire department, put on their own protective gear, and cordoned off an area of several blocks around the hospital.
Now, put yourself in the poor victim's place. I don't know what happened, but I bet it was something like he fell into one of the sumps beneath the compressor engines out at one of these oil sites. He's in there with crude oil and engine oil and muck on his clothes, with a barked shin and a skinned elbow, and all of a sudden he's surrounded by the whole friggin' ER staff in moon suits, and outside the Fire Department has shut down all street access for about six blocks in any direction.
They cleaned him up and sent him home.
I suspect that our hospital and FD have trained for some massive emergency, possibly some kind of homeland security chemical attack, and those are the procedures they have in place. When our poor oil worker fell into the basement he set off a bigger reaction than he could ever have dreamed, just because that was the only response the hospital had drilled for.
I think the hospital and fire department acted well in all this. Better safe than sorry, and if nothing else it was good practice. But I bet they wish they hadn't. The rumor mill has gotten ahold of this and is making a big thing about it. They at the hospital have probably spent the past week trying to set the record straight.
Fat chance. That's not how the rumor mill works in a small town-- or anywhere else.
"Emergency? Hospital? Nobody's called me about any emergency at any hospital." Nor is there any reason why they would, by the way.
C became very obviously patient with me. "It was on the TV news. It's in the paper. Somebody got exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas at one of the facilities out east, and when they got dragged to the hospital it was so bad on the guy's clothes that some of the nurses fainted from it."
I go by the general principle that anything you hear on TV is wrong. Given that I've been quoted in newspapers three times and quoted incorrectly all three, I'm not so sure about the papers either. They seem to have this tendency to change what I actually said into whatever they wish I'd said so that it would make an exciting story. Of course, I'm not complaining about that; I write fiction too. Just not for a living.
And C's phone tips about industrial disasters-- well. I don't entirely trust them either, shall we say. Of course the last time she called me, there really was a problem and we ended up taking some serious action against the place. The problem was not in ANY WAY what she thought it was, but still, it was a useful tip.
"I'll see what I can find out."
"Do that. Please call me back if you discover anything."
So, among the other things I did that day I went to the hospital and asked them what was going on. I met a lot of grim faces, got escorted into a conference room with the entire high brass of the hospital in attendance, and the nice lady who runs the emergency room explained it to me, very carefully.
Seems that some fellow working on an oil well site fell into a "cellar" or pit or some such. Whatever he fell into, he landed in crude oil and/or some other unpleasant gunk.
His co-workers dragged him out and called EMS. EMS ran him to the hospital. This is all well and good. You have to assume being dunked in petroleum products is life-threatening. If it's gasoline, for example, and you don't get it properly cleaned off, the benzene in it will seep through your skin and cause brain and nerve damage. Among other possible problems, such as cancer and the like.
The hospital also did things as they should have. Maybe more than they should have. Since this guy stank when he came in, they hustled him into a side exam room, sealed it off from the rest of the ER, put on their personal protective gear and went into full hazmat decontamination mode. Also, as their procedures required, they called the local fire department and reported the incident.
The FD had its own procedures in place for a hazardous materials release. One of their big things is to prevent any other potential victims from wandering onto the scene. So they scrambled the entire department, put on their own protective gear, and cordoned off an area of several blocks around the hospital.
Now, put yourself in the poor victim's place. I don't know what happened, but I bet it was something like he fell into one of the sumps beneath the compressor engines out at one of these oil sites. He's in there with crude oil and engine oil and muck on his clothes, with a barked shin and a skinned elbow, and all of a sudden he's surrounded by the whole friggin' ER staff in moon suits, and outside the Fire Department has shut down all street access for about six blocks in any direction.
They cleaned him up and sent him home.
I suspect that our hospital and FD have trained for some massive emergency, possibly some kind of homeland security chemical attack, and those are the procedures they have in place. When our poor oil worker fell into the basement he set off a bigger reaction than he could ever have dreamed, just because that was the only response the hospital had drilled for.
I think the hospital and fire department acted well in all this. Better safe than sorry, and if nothing else it was good practice. But I bet they wish they hadn't. The rumor mill has gotten ahold of this and is making a big thing about it. They at the hospital have probably spent the past week trying to set the record straight.
Fat chance. That's not how the rumor mill works in a small town-- or anywhere else.
