DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Local hospital emergency rooms are busy dealing with people who have slipped on ice left after a snowstorm.
Channel 2’s Diana Davis went to Emory University Hospital, where staff and doctors have been working around the clock, and as roads reopen, the pace is picking up.
“The first few days when it was truly snowy and icy outside we didn’t have many patients, but then yesterday when the roads started to open up it was crazy busy here,” said Emory EMT Alexandra Amaducci, who has slept at the hospital since Sunday when the storm began.
The hospital rented four-wheel-drive vehicles to shuttle essential employees to and from the hospital when the storm hit. Other doctors, nurses and staff have hunkered down inside the hospital.
Emory employees said they have been busy treating storm-related injuries.
“A lot of broken wrists, a lot of broken elbows, some broken ankles and a few broken legs as well. People out and about slipping and falling,” said Emergency Department assistant medical director Dr. Josh Hargraves.
Doctors also treated patients for more serious injuries, without access to other medical centers. Some of those patients suffered from kidney failures, but their usual dialysis centers were closed.
“We’ve had a few critically ill patients. We’ve also had some patients who had no options but to come to the ER because every doctor’s office was closed and every urgent care center was closed a lot of pharmacies were closed too,” Armaducci said.
Hargraves said that ambulances had a lot of trouble getting to the ER during the first few nights after the storm. He said they only picked up patients for very serious illness.
“People who have been waiting it out haven’t been able to get to the hospital. Now they come here. They waited four days, and they are sicker,” he said.
But with the ice melting and road conditions improving, Emory said it’s gradually resuming normal operations, allowing most employees to return to normal shifts.
Republished with permission from WSBTV