# 3801
Emergency rooms and ICU units are among the first to feel the impact of an influenza pandemic, and the ER at Ohio State University Medical Center is no exception.
Today via the Columbus Dispatch, we get one ER doctor’s description of life in the trenches with this influenza pandemic. A hat tip to mcphilbrick on Flutrackers for posting this link.
Follow the link to read it in its entirety.
Dr. Diane Gorgas' first-person view of swine flu outbreak from the trenches
October 04, 2009, 12:01AM
By Dr. Diane Gorgas, For The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — We are setting records in the ER, and it seems, day after day, these records become more impressive.
The number of patients we're seeing in a 24-hour period is unthinkable by historic norms. Everyday the tide comes in faster and we struggle to stay afloat.
Today, I have called in as an extra physician to work because in 30 minutes, 12 new patients have signed in to be seen, all with Influenza-related presentations.
They are as varied as any 12 patients can be presenting to the ER, with regards to age, gender, baseline health status, socioeconomic standing, and level of acuity or simply put, how sick they are.
But the thread that ties them together is the 2009 H1N1 outbreak.
