About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2020)
8A Wednesday, March 25, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com NATION/STATE ‘Cacophony of coughing’: Inside New York City’s virus-hit ERs People line up outside Elmhurst Hospital Center to be tested for the coronavirus, Tuesday, March 24, in the Queens borough of New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the number of positive coronavirus cases in the state surged to more than 20,000, with more than half the cases in New York City. BY MICHAEL R. SISAK, JIM MUSTIAN AND JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK - A “cacophony of coughing” in packed emergency rooms. Beds squeezed in wherever there is space. Overworked, sleep-deprived doctors and nurses rationed to one face mask a day and wracked by worry about a dwin dling number of available ventilators. Such is the reality inside New York City’s hospitals, which have become the war- zone-like epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus crisis. Faced with an infection rate that is five times that of the rest of the country, health workers are putting themselves at risk to fight a tide of sickness that’s get ting worse by the day amid a shortage of needed supplies and promises of help from the federal government that have yet to fully materialize. “You’re on 100% of the time — no matter what,” said Dr. Jolion McGreevy, medical director of The Mount Sinai Hospital emer gency department. “It’s been a month of full force, and that’s certainly very stressful.” Patients initially showed up with fairly mild symp toms, ranging from a runny nose to a mild fever, con cerned they contracted coro navirus. That shifted over the past week, McGreevy said, and now hospitals are receiving far sicker patients in need of life-saving intervention. “These are people in severe respiratory distress, needing to be intubated and needing the intensive care unit,” he said. “We knew it was coming. We saw it in Italy and other places so we were prepared for it, and now we’re seeing it.” Columbia University chief surgeon Dr. Craig Smith wrote in a note to colleagues: “To think we could mimic Italy seemed risible a week ago. Not today.” Nearly 14,800 people in New York City have been diagnosed with coronavirus as of Tuesday, accounting for more than half the cases in the hardest-hit state in the nation. More than 2,200 people in the city were hospital ized because of the virus — double the figure from three days earlier — and more than 500 were being treated in intensive care. The death toll rose to 131, and officials from the governor on down warned it will get worse before it gets better. “We are not slowing it. And it is accelerating on its own,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the state could be as close as two weeks away from a crisis that sees 40,000 people in intensive care. Such a surge would over whelm hospitals, which now have just 3,000 intensive care unit beds statewide. “One of the forecasters said we were looking at a freight train coming across the country. We’re now look ing at a bullet train,” he said. Bristling at President Donald Trump’s notion that Americans should be pre pared to go back to work in weeks for the sake of the economy, Cuomo said that would essentially sacrifice the lives of the elderly and the most frail among us. “That’s not the American way,” he said. “That’s not the New York way.” And Cuomo appeared to mock the federal govern ment for congratulating itself for sending the city 400 desperately needed ven tilators from the national stockpile. “What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?” he asked. “You pick the 26,000 peo ple who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.” Khalid Amin, a doctor at Methodist Hospital in Brook lyn, treated seven COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, rang ing from 25 to 72, and he is struck by the way the disease has laid each low in the same way — the fatigue, the way they grasp for air with the slightest movement. One patient in his 50s, moving from the bathroom to his bed, a space of less than 12 feet, seemed to strug gle at one point, his chest ris ing and falling rapidly. MARY ALTAFFER I Associated Press “You seem short of breath?” Amin asked. Then came the reply, so low, Amin could barely hear him though he was inches away. “Yes.” Moments later, a stetho scope on the patient’s back, Amin heard the same tell tale sound he had been hear ing in other patients that day: “It’s a crackle, like crum pling paper.” Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived a bout of Ebola in 2014 and now is director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Pres- byterian/Columbia Univer sity Medical Center, tweeted Tuesday of a “cacophony of coughing” in the ER, say ing nearly every patient he encounters has the same symptoms, regardless of age: a persistent hack, shortness of breath and fever. “You’re afraid to take off the mask,” he wrote. “It’s the only thing that protects you. ” Smith said hospitals in the New York-Presbyterian system are burning through about 40,000 masks a day amid the crisis — about 10 times the normal amount — and have begun issuing staff members just one each day. Ga. high court to hear fight over seat on its bench BY KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA — Georgia’s Supreme Court on Monday said it plans to wade into a fight over a seat on its bench, though some of the high court justices recused themselves and substitute judges will sit in. The fight stems from a decision by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to cancel a scheduled election for Jus tice Keith Blackwell’s seat on the state Supreme Court after Blackwell announced his intention to resign in November and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said he planned to fill the seat by appointment. John Barrow, a former Democratic congressman from Athens, and former Republican state lawmaker Beth Beskin of Atlanta had both planned to challenge Black- well in an election scheduled for May 19. After they were denied the opportunity to qualify for the election, they each filed separate lawsuits saying the cancellation was illegal and asking a judge to order Raffensperger to put the elec tion back on the calendar and allow candidates to qualify. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Emily Richardson last week ruled that according to the Georgia Constitution and state law, Blackwell’s seat became vacant Feb. 26, when Kemp signed a letter accepting the justice’s resigna tion. Raffensperger was no longer required to hold an elec tion for the seat once the governor signaled his intent to appoint someone to fill it, she wrote. Barrow filed an emergency request with the Georgia Court of Appeals, asking the lower appeals court to con sider his arguments. The Court of Appeals transferred the case to the Supreme Court, saying the “primary underlying issue is an election contest” and those fall under the juris diction of the high court. Barrow then filed a motion asking that the Supreme Court justices be disqualified or recuse themselves from the case, saying the circumstances of the case mean their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. The same day that the Court of Appeals kicked Barrow’s case up to the Supreme Court, Beskin asked the Supreme Court to hear her case. The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the cases on an expedited basis. Among the issues the high court asked the parties to address are whether Raffensperger properly treated Blackwell’s resignation as a vacancy that could be filled by the governor and whether Blackwell’s resignation could be reversed once the governor accepted it. The court also asked whether Beskin’s challenge became moot because she qualified to challenge another sitting justice after her attempt to challenge Blackwell was denied. Five of the court’s justices recused themselves from par ticipating in the case, and a seat vacated earlier this month by former Justice Robert Benham remains empty. Chief Justice Harold Melton, Presiding Justice David Nahmias and Justice Sarah Warren did not recuse. Five judges from other courts were appointed to hear the cases in the place of the nonparticipating justices. Cary Ichter, Beskin’s attorney, said in an email that they are pleased the Supreme Court is taking the case and is acting quickly. Lester Tate, an attorney for Barrow, said in an email that he’s shocked that any of the court’s justices plans to participate, saying it’s “inconsistent with principles of openness and impartiality.” With isolation, activists fear increase in domestic abuse A woman paints some signs before pasting them on buildings, Oct. 23 2019, in the streets of Paris. As families across the country and the globe hunker down at home, there’s another danger, also insidious if less immediately obvious, that worries advocates and officials: A potential spike in domestic violence. BY JOCELYN N0VECK Associated Press “Safer at Home.” It’s a slo gan of choice for the manda tory confinement measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. But it’s not true for everyone. As the world’s fami lies hunker down, there’s another danger, less obvious but just as insidious, that wor ries advocates and officials: a potential spike in domestic violence as victims spend day and night trapped at home with their abusers, with tensions rising, nowhere to escape, limited or no access to friends or relatives — and no idea when it will end. “An abuser will use any thing in their toolbox to exert their power and con trol, and COVID-19 is one of those tools,” said Crys tal Justice, who oversees development at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a 24/7 national hotline in the United States. In cities and towns every where, concern is high, and meaningful numbers are hard to come by. In some cases, officials worry about a spike in calls, and in others, about a drop in calls, which might indicate that victims cannot find a safe way to reach out for help. On a normal day, 1,800 to 2,000 people will call that national hotline. That num ber hasn’t changed, but that doesn’t surprise organizers. After natural disasters like earthquakes, Justice says, it’s only when schools and work places reopen that people are finally able to reach out. More significant, she says, is that more than 700 peo ple who called the hotline between last Wednesday and Sunday cited the coro navirus as “a condition of their experience.” Some of the out-of-the-ordinary anec dotes staffers are hearing include abusers preventing their partners from going to their jobs in health care, or blocking them from needed health care services or from accessing safety tools like gloves or sanitizer. In Los Angeles, officials have been bracing for a spike in abuse. “When cabin fever sets in, give it a week or two, people get tired of seeing each other and then you might have domestic vio lence,” said Alex Villanueva, the sheriff of Los Angeles County. “We started getting on this as soon as soon as we started seeing the handwriting on the wall,” said Patti Giggans, executive director of the non profit Peace Over Violence in Los Angeles. Before the statewide lock- down, the nonprofit began preparing online counseling sessions, and reaching out to clients to suggest ways to keep in contact — phone calls to counselors from a bathroom or during a walk, if an abuser is in the home. In one recent case, Gig gans said a woman showed up at the emergency room after a domestic violence incident, and Peace Over Violence staff had to talk to her over the phone to get her to safety in another county. Because of virus mea sures, advocates “can’t show up at the police station now. We can’t show up at the hos pital,” Giggans said. She said her staff has been told that KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU I Associated Press shelters are taking people’s temperatures when they show up. The shelters are also working on plans to limit the proximity of people, in order to maintain social dis tancing, she said. Such conditions are also an issue in Illinois, where shelters, already at capac ity, were moving beds fur ther apart to follow CDC guidelines. “One of the key challenges of this health pandemic is that home isn’t a safe place for everyone,” said Amanda Pyron, executive director of The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence, based in Chicago. “Victims and the abusers have to stay at the scene of the crime.” The group helps run a state wide 24-hour hotline, which has seen a spike in the aver age number of daily calls, from about 60 to 90, since confinement orders went into effect last weekend. Similar concerns have arisen in hard-hit continen tal Europe. In France, “it’s an explosive cocktail,” says Nathalie Tomasini, a leading lawyer for domestic violence victims there. Being trapped in an apartment with an abu sive partner, she said, is akin to “a prison with no open window.” Schedule your free design consultation! EVERYTHING WITHIN REACH Limit one offer per household. Must purchase 5+ Classic/Designer Shelves. EXP 3/31/20.
