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CNN Live Today
Talk with Medical Director for St. Vincent's Hospital
Aired August 15, 2003 - 10:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Imagine trying to run a hospital in this environment of power outages and not knowing when it's going to come back on. That's what hospitals here in New York City and other cities are facing. Want to bring in right now on the phone Dr. Anthony Gagliardi. He's a medical director for St. Vincent's Hospital here in Manhattan down on 14th Street in the Chelsea District of Manhattan.
Doctor, good morning, thanks for being with us.
DR. ANTHONY GAGLIARDI, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, ST. VINCENT'S HOSPITAL: Good morning, thank you.
KAGAN: What is the status of power at your hospital this morning?
GAGLIARDI: We're still very much like yesterday or throughout yesterday without power. We have an emergency generator, which is servicing all of our basic needs. Doesn't give us air conditioning which obviously is not helpful. But certainly is giving us enough power to take care of all the patients that we have.
KAGAN: Take me back yesterday to - yesterday afternoon, 4:11 p.m. Power goes out. What happens if people were in surgery or connected to life saving machines?
GAGLIARDI: Immediately when the power surges down, our emergency generators kick in. There's a time delay of about four or five seconds so there's no interruption of power in those units which are connected to the emergency power, except for a mild surge.
All the non-critical areas, of course, shut off and that's when we were alerted to it. And immediately given the dramatic nature of the outage, we called what we call Code 3, which is to start our disaster drill. And the senior leadership of the organization assembles in our boardroom and we begin to parcel out resources depending upon what the emergent situation is.
KAGAN: We were hearing from Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, talking about how so many different people practice for situations like this. Sounds like your hospital has done just that and things went as they were supposed to. And a situation that you perhaps practiced for in the past.
GAGLIARDI: Unfortunately, as you know, we were involved intimately in the - in both World Trade Center disasters in '93 and 2001, as well as some other local emergencies in the area. So we, unfortunately, train by experience at the institution. So it's a pretty well oiled machine with respect to what people's involvement is.
And that, coupled to the fact that we are a major trauma center in the west side of New York, really prepares us for most things that come in, either from a global kind of process, like a power outage, or a specific process, like a bombing or an explosion or that sort of calamity.
KAGAN: What kind of people did come through your doors, doctor?
GAGLIARDI: Many of the people were either trapped in buildings or in subways, had to be extracted from subways. So there's a lot of relatively mild trauma compared to a major building collapse or bomb. There were a lot of people with abrasions, broken legs.
A lot of people suffering from anxiety and shortness of breath. The combination of heat and the anxiety from the blackout. So we cared for probably twice as many people in the ED as we would normally in about a seven-hour period of time. But luckily, no major, major injuries.
KAGAN: We wish you well getting back online and getting your hospital with some air conditioning and everything it needs to operate at 100 percent.
GAGLIARDI: Thank you very much.
KAGAN: Dr. Anthony Gagliardi, medical director of St. Vincent's Hospital.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 15, 2003 - 10:13 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Imagine trying to run a hospital in this environment of power outages and not knowing when it's going to come back on. That's what hospitals here in New York City and other cities are facing. Want to bring in right now on the phone Dr. Anthony Gagliardi. He's a medical director for St. Vincent's Hospital here in Manhattan down on 14th Street in the Chelsea District of Manhattan.
Doctor, good morning, thanks for being with us.
DR. ANTHONY GAGLIARDI, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, ST. VINCENT'S HOSPITAL: Good morning, thank you.
KAGAN: What is the status of power at your hospital this morning?
GAGLIARDI: We're still very much like yesterday or throughout yesterday without power. We have an emergency generator, which is servicing all of our basic needs. Doesn't give us air conditioning which obviously is not helpful. But certainly is giving us enough power to take care of all the patients that we have.
KAGAN: Take me back yesterday to - yesterday afternoon, 4:11 p.m. Power goes out. What happens if people were in surgery or connected to life saving machines?
GAGLIARDI: Immediately when the power surges down, our emergency generators kick in. There's a time delay of about four or five seconds so there's no interruption of power in those units which are connected to the emergency power, except for a mild surge.
All the non-critical areas, of course, shut off and that's when we were alerted to it. And immediately given the dramatic nature of the outage, we called what we call Code 3, which is to start our disaster drill. And the senior leadership of the organization assembles in our boardroom and we begin to parcel out resources depending upon what the emergent situation is.
KAGAN: We were hearing from Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, talking about how so many different people practice for situations like this. Sounds like your hospital has done just that and things went as they were supposed to. And a situation that you perhaps practiced for in the past.
GAGLIARDI: Unfortunately, as you know, we were involved intimately in the - in both World Trade Center disasters in '93 and 2001, as well as some other local emergencies in the area. So we, unfortunately, train by experience at the institution. So it's a pretty well oiled machine with respect to what people's involvement is.
And that, coupled to the fact that we are a major trauma center in the west side of New York, really prepares us for most things that come in, either from a global kind of process, like a power outage, or a specific process, like a bombing or an explosion or that sort of calamity.
KAGAN: What kind of people did come through your doors, doctor?
GAGLIARDI: Many of the people were either trapped in buildings or in subways, had to be extracted from subways. So there's a lot of relatively mild trauma compared to a major building collapse or bomb. There were a lot of people with abrasions, broken legs.
A lot of people suffering from anxiety and shortness of breath. The combination of heat and the anxiety from the blackout. So we cared for probably twice as many people in the ED as we would normally in about a seven-hour period of time. But luckily, no major, major injuries.
KAGAN: We wish you well getting back online and getting your hospital with some air conditioning and everything it needs to operate at 100 percent.
GAGLIARDI: Thank you very much.
KAGAN: Dr. Anthony Gagliardi, medical director of St. Vincent's Hospital.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
