Tracking NYC’s coronavirus fight, from 911 call to ER door

coronavirus crisis is taxing New York City’s 911 system like never before. Operators pick up a call every 15.5 seconds. Panicked voices tell of loved ones in declining health. re are multitudes of cardiac arrests and respiratory failures and ors who call needing reassurance that a mere sneeze isn’t a sign y’ve been infected.

system is so overwhelmed, city has started sending text and tweet alerts urging people to only call 911 “for life-threatening emergencies.”

As city staggered through its deadliest week of pandemic , its emergency response system and army of operators, dispatchers and ambulance crews is being pushed to brink.

fire department said it has averd more than 5,500 ambulance requests each day — about 40% higher than usual, eclipsing total call volume on Sept. 11, 2001.

“When you hang up with one call, ar one pops in,” said 911 operator Monique Brown. “re’s time for a minute’s rest.”

“It’s back-to-back, nstop,” said dispatcher Virginia Creary.

“We just pick up call after call after call,” said paramedic Ravi Kailayanathan.

Between torrent of calls and so many requiring immediate intervention, like IVs and breathing tubes, it’s taking longer for help to arrive.

fire department said response times for most serious calls have been averaging more than 10 minutes, up from about 6½ to 7 minutes under rmal circumstances. People with mild symptoms or a mir injury could wait hours.

‘NEW YORK CITY 911’

Operators begin each 911 call in nation’s largest city with same question: “Do you need police, fire or medical?” n y evaluate call’s urgency, prioritizing m on fly.

Brown and her colleagues often work mandatory 16-hour shifts, crammed into Bronx and Brooklyn call centers behind screens that flash call details.

fevers and coughing that crowded city’s 911 lines early in crisis have given way to frantic calls about grave illnesses. Creary said she’s ticed cardiac arrest calls spike. Some people call back within hours to report symptoms suddenly worsening.

fire department said it is seeing more than 300 cardiac arrest calls per day, with well over 200 of those patients dying. A year ago, department averd 64 calls for cardiac arrest per day.

“ worst thing is taking a call and hearing somebody screaming because ir loved one has stopped breathing or y’re in distress and y don’t kw what to do,” said Creary, who’s also an EMT. “You just feel utterly helpless.”

‘WE CAN T HANDLE THIS’

After 911 operator, medical dispatchers like Creary take charge. y find an ambulance to respond and act as a liaison between crews in field and hospitals.

Hospitals swamped by surge of patients sometimes make ambulances lined up outside, with crews waiting urd of 40 minutes to hand over a patient.

Creary said twice in recent days hospitals have told her to divert ambulances elsewhere. A nurse she alerted about an impending arrival pleaded: “We cant handle this. We have beds. We have oxygen. We have equipment. y cant come here.”

Nearly a quarter of city’s EMS workers have been out sick, fire department said. On one day last week, 3,000 members of fire department were sidelined, including about 950 of city’s 4,300 EMS workers.

federal government sent 250 ambulances and 500 EMTs last week to supplement city’s fleet. fire department has deployed seven rapid-response vehicles, manned by firefighters, to Bronx to provide care until an ambulance arrives.

“It’s mentally taxing,” said Creary, who copes with stress at home by playing trumpet and learning bagpipes. “We’re short staffed. We’re short ambulances. Everybody’s basically overwhelmed.”

‘IT’S JUST HEARTBREAKING’

Kailayanathan, a paramedic responding to more than a dozen calls each day, stepped off his ambulance tired, hungry and emotionally drained after ar 16-hour day.

Nearly every patient he saw on a recent 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. shift needed to be hospitalized and hooked up to a ventilator. Some patients have had to be resuscitated in back of ambulance.

“It’s just heartbreaking,” Kailayanathan said.

state has instituted a tri protocol that instructs ambulance crews to question patients from a distance to screen for symptoms before initiating an examination with protective gear.

Kailayanathan’s assignment varies depending on where dispatch system detects a surge in calls. Two weeks ago, he was in Queens, borough hit hardest by disease. Last week, he was shuttling patients to Lincoln Hospital in Bronx.

daughter of an elderly woman Kailayanathan treated pleaded to ride with her, but to curb spread of disease, family members are longer allowed in ambulances and hospitals have banned visitors.

“re’s a good chance that daughter is t going see her mor again,” he said. “That’s just really, really draining.”

‘ WAY TO AVOID IT’

At least 688 EMS workers and or fire department employees have tested positive for coronavirus. A paramedic, Christell Cadet, has been in intensive care for three weeks. Throughout city’s emergency response system, workers fear y’ll be next.

Kailayanathan said he’s only been drinking water on job, cautious about eating and somehow introducing virus into his body.

re is sink in ambulance to wash hands, so he mainly uses hand sanitizer. After his last run, he showers twice — at work and again at home. n he has his first meal since 6 a.m.

Kailayanathan worries about infecting his elderly parents. Creary is looking into a temporary living arrangement so she doesn’t bring disease home to her elderly mor.

union for 911 operators is demanding that police department, which runs call centers, workers out to protect ir health. Instead of social distancing, y’re “sitting on top of each or,” said Alma Roper, of District Council 37’s Local 1549.

“For us, it’s t an if, it’s a when. When are se symptoms going to start? When are we going to start getting sick?” said Creary. “Because re’s way to avoid it.”

(Im Credit: AP)