14 MAY 14, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMED@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
As one of the hospitals in the
epicenter of COVID-19, Wyckoff
Heights Medical Center in
Brooklyn continues to treat patients
who have tested positive for the novel
coronavirus.
“I think without exception, the staff
of the hospital has taken on these
great challenges head on, and have
worked as hard and as much as they
can to try to save the lives of all the
infected patients,” said Dr. Gustavo
Del Toro, executive vice president
and chief medical offi cer of Wyckoff
Hospital. “I’m very proud of them. It’s
been an incredible eff ort that most of
our staff have put into this.”
The hospital, located at 374 Stockholm
St. on the Brooklyn/Queens
border, has a dedicated staff of 1,800
physicians, nurses and support personnel
care for patients.
Earlier in the year, upon news of
a possible coronavirus outbreak in
New York City, the hospital began
implementing strict measures to protect
its employees and preparation to
meet the surge of COVID-19 patients,
according to Del Toro.
On March 14, the hospital registered
its fi rst coronavirus-related
death in New York City.
“So far, we’ve had about 1,000 patients
admitted to the hospital with
COVID or suspected COVID,” Del
Toro said. “The infl ux of patients
have slowed down quite a bit, but
there are still many patients in the
hospital that are extremely ill.”
According to Del Torro, the hospital
was operating at more than 100
percent capacity during a fi ve-week
period amid the pandemic.
“Our usual capacity is 175 patients
and there were days where we had
230 patients in the inpatient unit,
while there were another 58 patients
waiting for a bed,” Del Toro said.
To accommodate patients with
COVID-19-related symptoms, the
hospital created new areas of inpatient
care and critical patient care in
diff erent parts of the building that
didn’t exist before March, Del Toro
said.
“For example, the pediatric inpatient
unit was converted into an
adult COVID patient unit with some
ventilators,” Del Toro said. “We also
shut down our surgeries and medical
procedures and completely closed
down our ambulatory services.”
Many of those employees were deployed
to the medical inpatient care,
emergency department and critical
care areas.
Following a shortage of personal
protective equipment (PPE), the
hospital has received a stockpile of
PPE for its staff , according to Del
Toro, and enough ventilators from
the state for patients.
As he spends his days helping
to make sure that clinical matters
Photo by Evelyn Chassagne
in the hospital are running as expected,
Del Toro described being
on the frontline with his colleagues
helping to fight the coronavirus as
challenging.
“This is a situation that I haven’t really
encountered over a long period
of time like that,” Del Toro said. “It
was unbelievable and still is.”
In response to the support of community
members who have donated
meals to the hospital staff , Del Toro
said it’s “very much appreciated.”
“Ten days ago we had an entire
group of NYPD and FDNY trucks
and cars and staff standing outside
clapping for us,” Del Toro said. “I’ve
never seen that in my life. You feel
very appreciated and all of our staff
are happy to know the community,
and the government at large, appreciates
what we have gone through in
the epicenter of the disease. We still
are, and to get that support is very
valuable and it makes us continue to
do it every day.”
NATIONAL HOSPITALS WEEK
Community’s support helps Wyckoff Heights Medical
Center’s staff keep working through COVID-19 pandemic
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