nursing home Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

May 2020 Newsletter – Worst President Ever

I wrote this for the May 2020 issue of the Urban News.

I have been trying to think of some tune that would elevate my mood. I thought of “Love Train” by the O’Jays. Of course, there’s Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” Then there’s Katrina’s “Walking on Sunshine.” But none of these tunes really seem to hit the spot. Ricky Martin’s “Living La Vida Loca,” James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” is a perennial pick-me-up, but not this time. Finally, there is “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

Well, I’m sorry, but I’m in a funk. None of these tunes is changing my mood. As of this writing, the United States has more than 1.1 million Americans who been infected with the coronavirus and more than 70,000 deaths. 70,000! That is more than three-quarters of the population of Asheville. (To put this in perspective, there were 39,773 firearm deaths in the US for all of 2017.)

This is why I am dysphoric. I know that Jared Kushner, president’s son-in-law and top aide, recently said that the administration has done an outstanding job with the coronavirus. My first response is “HAH!” That is not reality; that is political posturing. The Trump administration has done a terrible job.

Petri Dishes for the Coronavirus

Last month, in this newspaper, I stressed that I was worried about nursing homes. In nursing homes there is the perfect combination of elderly patients, close quarters, and a population with multiple comorbidities. That is the perfect environment for the coronavirus to grow, thrive, and kill.

Unfortunately, I was right. Many states did not enact any specific legislation to safeguard nursing homes. Facilities across the country became a fertile breeding ground for the coronavirus. Here in West Virginia, in Wayne County, 30 of the 41 residents at one nursing home tested positive for the novel coronavirus, as did 34 of the 68 staff—50%—in a county with a total population of less than 40,000. There were seven deaths from this one nursing home. After nursing homes made the national news, governors across the nation began enacting proclamations to make nursing homes safer, but it seems a little too late.

Unfortunately, when I was writing my newsletter last month, I didn’t even think about prisons. Prisons are overcrowded. So it’s not a surprise that at the Cook County jail, in Chicago, 276 inmates and 172 correctional officers tested positive for the coronavirus. Again, this is the perfect combination of people in close quarters who can easily and rapidly spread the virus between each other. Some prisons are trying to release some prisoners early in order to decrease overcrowding. One federal prison in Washington DC is shipping over 100 prisoners to West Virginia to decrease overcrowding. I am not sure if it is possible to do social distancing in a prison. This is a problem that no one seems all that eager to solve.

Huge coronavirus outbreaks are taking place at large meat processing plants. It appears that the owners of these plants did little to change their practices to try to decrease the possibility of a coronavirus infection. Over 20 of these plants have closed down because of coronavirus outbreaks—and now even Wendy’s is running out of hamburgers at some of its outlets! In his infinite wisdom (please understand, I’m inserting as much sarcasm as I can with eyerolling), President Trump signed an executive order ordering meat processing plants to stay open. Trump did not order these meatpacking plants to furnish all their workers with masks. He didn’t order them to begin testing all of their workers for the virus. He didn’t order frequent hand washing or social distancing. Instead, he issued an executive order which seems to make the problem worse.

(more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2020-06-02T06:35:28-04:00June 2nd, 2020|Coronavirus, Elections|Comments Off

Hurricane Harvey #4 Update

Unfortunately, Hurricane Harvey, which is now a topical depression, just will not go away. It is chilling over the Texas coast dumping more and more rain.

The problems with Harvey are huge. With most disaster planning, you plan for an event to hit and area then you have an opportunity to come in and begin to assess the problem rather quickly. Once you assess the problem you can bring in the resources to fix the problem. Harvey just keeps going, on and on. There is not been a real opportunity to assess the problem. Many areas have simply remained as they are.

Weather Channel:

Tropical Storm Harvey has drifted back over the Gulf of Mexico and will meander near the upper Texas coast the next few days, bringing more torrential rainfall to the flooded Houston metro area, piling onto record-breaking, catastrophic flooding.

Localized storm-total rain amounts of up to 50 inches are not out of the question once Harvey’s rain is finished later this week. This may end up being one of the worst flood disasters in U.S. history.

Through Monday evening, parts of southeast Texas have received more than 35 inches of rain since Thursday evening.

The top rainfall total is 39.72 inches near Dayton, Texas, which is located well northeast of Houston. This is the fourth-greatest rainfall amount associated with a Texas tropical cyclone on record, according to Colorado State University tropical scientist Dr. Phil Klotzbach.

Some believe that when the rain finally stops the Texas coast will recover quickly. Texas is NOT Louisiana and Houston is NOT New Orleans. Houston is an economic powerhouse. Therefore, a lot of money will pour into Houston in order to repair things quickly. I predict that the recovery will be extremely spotty. Some places like Houston and Galveston will see a ton of money pour in while places like Freeport which took a direct hit from the Category 4 Hurricane will be slow, painfully slow to see recovery money.

More rain is expected over Southeast Texas. I continue to pray for the safety of the good people of Texas and Louisiana.

Out of all of the awful images out of Hurricane Harvey and there have been tons, this is the worst.

Nursing home residents all stuck in several feet of water. Heartbreaking. Thankfully, help did come.

Update: Damn. I really, really hate to type this but the Levees have broken. The worst nightmares of Katrina are rushing back into my memory.

From CNN:

The catastrophic flooding that has already swallowed thousands of homes in Texas could get worse after a levee breached south of Houston.

“Get out now!” Brazoria County officials tweeted Tuesday.

The levee breached after inland waterways rapidly swelled to major flood stage, county spokeswoman Sharon Trower said.

“The Brazos River is being pounded, and all of that water is coming down from the tributaries and creeks into the river,” she said. “All the roads around us are flooded. We don’t have any evacuation routes to tell people to take.” (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2017-08-29T15:28:28-04:00August 29th, 2017|Environment|Comments Off

Senator Coburn – Ask your neighbors and not your government for help

The heartlessness of Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is bad enough, but look at the reaction of the crowd. It is rather heart-wrenching to watch. Coburn basically tells a woman whose husband has a brain injury to go and panhandle his neighbors. If I get a break at work, I’ll have more to say on this terrible scene.

From Slate:

Writing in the New Republic‘s health care blog, the Treatment, Harold Pollock, a professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, said that when he saw this clip neither he nor his wife, a clinical nurse specialist, “could … believe what we were watching.”

Neither could I. Here’s a transcript:

Q: Sen. Coburn, we need help. My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. And what I need to know is: Are you going to help him? Where he can eat and drink? We left the nursing home, and they told us we are on our own. He left with a feeding tube. I have been working with him, but I’m not a speech pathologist, a professional that takes six years for a masters’, and I’m trying to get him to eat and drink again [inaud].

A: Well, I think—first of all, yeah. We’ll help. The first thing we will do is to see what we can do, individually, to help you, through our office. But the other thing that is missing in this debate is us as neighbors, helping people that need our help. [Applause.] You know we tend to … [Applause.] The idea that the government is a solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.

Pollock, his wife, and Philip Pizzo, dean of Stanford Medical School, found Coburn’s answer to be deeply disturbing. I did, too, of course. But what truly shocked and depressed me was not Coburn’s let-’em-eat-cake response but the fact that it wasn’t met in the room with a collective sharp intake of breath. Instead, Coburn received two quite robust bursts of applause. I have no idea how Congress and the White House can possibly sell health care reform to people like that. (more… )

Thanks to Political Animal for pointing this video out to me.

By ecthompsonmd|2009-08-29T05:38:26-04:00August 29th, 2009|Healthcare, Senate|Comments Off