Yo, y'all!! from the trenches of COVID-19 aka SARS-CoV-2. I am slam in the middle of it, or as military & suspense novel authors are fond of saying, "the pointy end of the spear"! LOL

 

Pray/Meditate for us all in medicine who are "all up in it".  We don't fear the Virus (oh yes, we're appropriately nervous), we fear those hospital  administrations (fortunately not the rule) who are poorly prepared, grossly under stocked, and lacking in the bigger picture of long-range strategies involving aggressive risk reduction & mitigation, and the tactics to accomplish that other than simple distancing and hand hygiene. 

 

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I am asking all of you on behalf of my doctor and nurse colleagues at my small specialty hospital (very ill/high risk addiction patients) for your help. 

 

Please mail anything that will help us with PPE (personal protective equipment). This might be :

 

* anything Painters use: goggles, head visors that lift up & down, painter's zip-up "paper zip up suits": if it stops paint & grease, it's better than nothing. And painters' dust masks. CDC Guidelines have been melted in the wake of desperate shortages - it's better than nothing.

 

* gloves - any gloves - any number of gloves. Alcohol-based/ diluted bleach / certain cleaning products CAN be applied to gloves as long as the gloves are NITRILE or LATEX (NOT vinyl). Yes, dish-washing gloves, too! (Can u say 1960's?)

 

* ETOH. If anyone has connections with a friend that is involved in the spirits industry, we need alcohol greater than or equal to 70%. I am aware that there are interstate laws and all sorts of caveats, but seriously - if anybody can figure anything out please let me know. It is true that various craft beer and alcohol makers are busily reaching out to the medical community, but my hospital is not yet in that receiving line. 

 

* Multi-layer homemade, custom sewn bandannas to be used in place of N95 masks. Creative textile artists arise! Yes, believe it or not even the CDC has mentioned this as an undesired yet legitimate substitute that is better than nothing.

 

* Finally, garden sprayers - yep. Or backpack-type sprayers. I found one at Wal-Mart a month ago. I can spray down my office/exam room, vehicle and self - but if anyone could possibly send anything that will decontaminate large surfaces rapidly, we'll take it. I talked with our maintenance fellows for two weeks (about six weeks ago) to see if they could hobble together something that would function in the way we needed, but then I found the backpack sprayer at Wal-Mart. By the way this little puppy runs on a 20 V lithium ion battery and of course I bought two extras. NOT hoarding...LOL!

 

A HUGE SHOUT OUT to DOT (DEE) FLOOD, Ph.D. Extraordinaire who has brought me the data I otherwise cannot find because I'm falling asleep as soon as I get home, or that which cannot easily be found yet. I've been able to ask her faily "what about XYZ" or "I read ABC, what do you think?". She hits the keyboard and bang I've got more data that I can hit with a tennis racket. (A little more colloquialism, folks, to lighten the mood! )

 

I am certain that I am not the only person out there on the edge of the front lines. To those of you who also share in this world wide effort, hats off to you and hang in there, 'ye lionesses of Mt. Ida! For everyone else who is holed up going stark raving mad, having the true color of your hair slowly, inexorably, maddeningly making itself known - Heavens blessing to all. Be safe be smart be your amazing selves. Namaste 🙏🏼, and as the First People are fond of saying: May you walk in Beauty.

 

Address anything you can to:

ATTN: Jamie V. Redwing, MD, FASAM

Valley Forge Medical Center & Hospital

1033 West Germantown Pike

Norristown, PA  19403-3998
610-539-8525 (Back Line) Ext. 208

480.246.7749 mobile

802.496.2337 Studio