FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 14, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 15
national hospitals week
Photos courtesy of Evelyn Chassagne
Community support helps Wyckoff Heights Medical
Center’s staff keep working through pandemic
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.”
Th e 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. “Th e
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 in the hospital
are running as expected, Del Toro
described being on the frontline with his
colleagues helping to fi ght the coronavirus
as challenging.
“Th is 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.”
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