Disease Scare Shuts Down 2 Hospital ERs

October 23, 2002
By SHARON TURCO, sturco@news-press.com

Smallpox-like symptoms on a woman brought into Cape Coral Hospital on Tuesday prompted the lockdown of two emergency rooms and a fire department and sent health officials scrambling to diagnose the ailment.

A 59-year-old North Fort Myers woman was in critical condition in the intensive care unit, but hospital and health officials do not know the specific cause of the rash on her body.

TENSE SITUATION: Cape Coral police and hospital security and staff talk to a woman outside the emergency room at Cape Coral Hospital after an infectious disease scare on Tuesday afternoon. Health officials still haven't determined the cause of a rash that infected a North Fort Myers woman. CLINT KRAUSE/The News-Press

"At first, smallpox was one of the diseases under consideration,î said Dr. Judith Hartner, director of the Lee County Health Department. ìWe determined it is a very, very low possibility, but it has not been ruled out."

A lockdown of Cape Coral Hospitalís emergency room was ordered at 3:33 p.m., a hospital protocol when a person with a suspected infectious disease comes in.

Later, Lee Memorial Hospitalís emergency room was also put on lockdown because paramedics who may have had contact with the patient were there.

"I don't know of a time where an emergency department was locked down," said Lee Memorial Health System spokeswoman Karen Krieger. "I don't know of a time where two emergency departments were locked down."

Dozens of patients were diverted to other hospitals.

Both emergency rooms and North Fort Myers Fire Station No. 4, where firefighters who responded to the initial call were in isolation, reopened by 7:30 p.m.

Hartner said it would take several days to medically discount smallpox as the cause of the patientís symptoms.

Cultures were taken and sent off to a lab. It will take about 24 hours to get back the results, said Jeff Doucette, the hospital systemís director for emergency services.

"We don't know exactly what she has, but her symptoms are consistent with an infectious disease," Hartner said.

Besides smallpox, doctors are looking at a long list of diseases including chicken pox and herpes.

There have been no reports of others with similar symptoms.

INFECTIOUS VS. CONTAGIOUS
An infectious disease is not necessarily contagious, said Dr. Judith Hartner, Lee Countyís health department director.

Hartner made the distinction to explain why she doesn't think the North Fort Myers womanís illness poses a public threat.

Infectious means a disease caused by a micro-organism. Contagious means an infected person can transmit the disease to another person, she said.

ìThere are lots of different kinds of infectious diseases,î she added. ìThe modes of transmission can be different.îHospitals in Collier, Charlotte and Sarasota were made aware of the rash, should they see anything similar, said John Wilson, Lee County public safety director.

Every precaution was taken, said Jim Nathan, president and CEO of Lee Memorial Health System.

The woman called Lee Control for help from a home in Fountain View Mobile Home Park at 2:11 p.m., with Lee County Emergency Services paramedics responding to take her to Cape Coral Hospital, Wilson said.

Firefighters from the North Fort Myers Fire District Station No. 4 assisted with the Fountain View call.

She arrived at 2:53 p.m., where emergency room doctors assessed the rash and called the health department for help, according to Wilson and Hartner.

In lockdown mode, the emergency rooms shut off the air conditioning to prevent contaminated air from circulating and refused to allow people in or out.

The entrance to Cape Coral Hospitalís emergency room was ringed with yellow crime scene tape and guarded by a handful of Cape Coral police and hospital guards.

A patrol guard blocked the main entrance on Del Prado Boulevard, and the rest of the emergency room parking lot was cordoned off by rolling gates and orange cones.

Two or three people hovered on the perimeter asking about friends and family but did not get answers.

"I don't know whatís going on,î said Larry Herbst, 57, who was checking on a friend admitted that morning. ìThis has got me a little concerned now."

At 6:30 p.m. Marti Van Veen, spokeswoman for Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center, said the hospital emergency room was 90 percent full. By 7 p.m. the emergency room was filled, she said.

Ambulances and nonemergency vans streamed up to the hospital emergency room entrance. At one point five ambulances parked there to let out patients. Three Lee County sheriff's office patrol cars were parked adjacent to them.

Despite the traffic, the emergency room wasn't overly crowded, and patients waited their turn for care.

Most people waiting outside the emergency room said they hadn't heard the news of the hospital emergency room closings.

North Fort Myers Bruce Baker, 47, was turned away from Cape Coral and Lee Memorial hospitals after he tried to admit his 10-year-old stepdaughter, who had stepped on a piece of glass.

When he went to Lee Memorial, he said officials told him to go to Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center, where he eventually found a place for her.

"They had it all roped off," he said. "I asked what happened. They told me to go see if I could get her into Southwest Florida Regional.

"People who are sick and need the emergency room - they've got to go all over the place," he said.

As a precaution county officials are still trying to get a list of people who came in contact with the woman.

Wilson said he was pleased with how the incident was being handled.

Communication between all agencies went smoothly, he said.

"This is the way itís supposed to work."

Staff writers Don Ruane, Charles Runnells and David Plazas contributed to this report.
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