4 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 30, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
сoronavirus
Flushing Hospital celebrates discharge of
1,000th patient to recover from COVID-19
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Flushing Hospital Medical Center on
April 24 celebrated the discharge of its
1,000th patient to recover from COVID-
19 with a special send-off .
Employees lined the hallways of the
hospital as they cheered and applauded
Ruben Silvestre, the hospitals’ chief nursing
offi cer, who was discharged aft er a
fi ve-day battle with COVID-19.
Silvestre’s message of hope for others
during this challenging time: “Keep it
up, believe and have faith,” Silvestre told
NY1 News.
Silvestre was admitted to the hospital
on April 20. Since the beginning of the
COVID-19 crisis, he has been helping to
treat patients battling the virus.
Silvestre is the 1,000th patient to be
discharged from the MediSys Health
Network, which includes Flushing
Hospital Medical Center and Jamaica
Hospital Medical Center — two of the
hospitals within the epicenter of the
COVID-19 outbreak in Queens.
“Both hospitals within our network provide
healthcare to communities that have
been hit hardest by the pandemic,” said
Bruce Flanz, president and CEO of the
MediSys Health Network. “Many who live
in the neighborhoods we serve are medically
vulnerable. Th erefore, we became
inundated by seriously ill patients who
were dependent on our frontline staff to
provide lifesaving care.”
Having cared for a large volume of
patients, each hospital experienced its
share of losses.
“Our doctors, nurses and other caregivers
worked tirelessly and selfl essly
to save as many lives that they could.
Unfortunately, despite their best eff orts,
some patients expired due to the complications
of the disease,” said Dr. Sabiha
Raoof, chief medical offi cer, MediSys.
According to Raoff , the MediSys
Network reached its apex in Mid-April
with over 450 patients admitted for coronavirus
complications, and more than 150
in need of ventilators.
However, the number of admitted
COVID-19 patients at Jamaica and
Flushing Hospital has declined as well
as the amount of patients requiring ventilators.
“Over the last week, thanks to the perseverance
of our frontline heroes, our numbers
have become slightly more encouraging,”
Raoff said. “It is with great optimism
that we say our numbers are slowing
down.”
City’s EMS rescinds resuscitation ban for cardiac patients
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
A previous instruction for FDNY
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to
not transport cardiac arrest patients to
hospitals overfl owing with COVID-19 if
they can’t be resuscitated in the fi eld has
been revoked as of Friday, April 24, following
public and worker outrage.
Th e Regional Emergency Medical
Services Council of New York issued
guidelines for EMS workers to not take
patients to hospitals if they cannot fi nd or
restart a pulse while administering CPR
for 20 minutes on March 31, according to
the New York Post.
In the event a resuscitation doesn’t
occur and the body is in public view,
the body would be left in NYPD custody,
according to the March 31 memo also
obtained by CNN.
Th e do-not-resuscitate protocol was
almost immediately met with outrage
from fi rst responders. Michael Greco,
the vice president of Local 2507, which
represents more than 4,000 FDNY
EMTs, paramedics and fi re inspectors,
said the FDNY never adopted
that mandate from the New York City
Regional Emergency Medical Advisory
Committee (REMAC).
While he understands the logistic side
of the order and the need to protect
FDNY EMS workers, he said it also came
with “a lot of confusion.”
“I personally didn’t agree with it,” Greco
told QNS. “Even though, statistically,
bringing someone back from cardiac
arrest is small, I’d still rather have that
1 percent chance. Th at’s why I became a
paramedic.”
But Greco, who’s been in the business
for 13 years, said he’s never seen anything
like this and it isn’t something they
could’ve trained for or foreseen. He said
there have been fi ve Local 2507 paramedics
and EMT workers who have passed
away due to the virus.
Th e April 23 letter from FDNY EMS
Chief Lillian Bonsignore announcing the
rescinded protocols suggests the department
is preparing to go back to pre-
COVID-19 operations.
“As we cautiously transition to the
downslope of this crisis, we will de-escalate
by incrementally repealing COVID-
19 Medical Aff airs Directives and operational
orders,” Bonsignore wrote in the
letter that was obtained by QNS.
Greco said that he supports returning to
back to normal operations “in a cautious
manner,” as it means EMT and paramedics
won’t have to continue making decisions
that they never had to before.
Th e VP also mentioned more FDNY
EMS workers are returning from sick
leave. At the pandemic’s peak, they had
about 1,000 people on sick leave, but now
there are less than 400.
“We remain cautiously optimistic that
the trend goes down, but by no chance are
we out of the woods. Now is not the time
to get complacent,” Greco said, adding
that social distancing measures and closures
may be stopping the further spread
of COVID-19.
Greco said even the call volume —
which reached a record high of 6,500 a
day, the most calls ever in FDNYs history,
Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay
told Bloomberg News on March 25 — is
down. However, while the city reported a
drop in the number of cases, hospitalizations
and hospital admissions on April 24,
New York is still in a state of emergency.
“Several pre-pandemic protocols are
returning as call volume has thankfully
dropped considerably and is below
normal averages at this time,” FDNY
spokesman Frank Dwyer told QNS. “Th e
Department is remaining cautious and
vigilant.”
Photo courtesy of MediSys Health Network
Ruben Silvestre, the hospitals’ chief nursing offi cer, waves to employees as he leaves the hospital
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
/WWW.QNS.COM
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