Tuesday, April 14, 2020

HELL ON EARTH: COVID-19 PLAGUE ASSAILS URBAN DETROIT


Body bags and blue bags containing the personal effects of the deceased are seen piled inside a portable refrigerator storage unit outside the hospital.
(Photos shared among emergency room staff at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit show bodies being stored in vacant hospital rooms and piled on top of each other inside refrigerated holding units brought into the hospital's parking lot.) CNN acquired the photos from an emergency room worker.

By Ryan Young, Jake Carpenter and
Paul P. Murphy 

Two other emergency room workers confirm the photos are an accurate portrayal of the scene taking place at the hospital during early April, during one 12-hour shift they describe as overwhelming.
The ER workers spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their jobs.
The two sources tell CNN that at least one room, which is typically used for studies on sleeping habits, was used to store bodies because morgue staff did not work at night, and the morgue was full.
"All I know is we ran out of beds to keep our patients on so we couldn't spare any for the bodies," said one ER worker, who witnessed the bodies in the room.
In the photo two bodies were put on a bed, side by side, and another body is placed in a chair next to the bed. All three bodies are in white body bags.
"It was because we hadn't gotten our outside freezers yet, so those rooms had beds and the morgue people don't work over night," said the ER worker.
In response to this incident, two hospital ER workers tell CNN that the hospital decided to order portable refrigerator storage units to store the bodies.
On Saturday, CNN visited the hospital. Five refrigerated storage units could be seen in the parking lot.
And, in another photo obtained by CNN from an emergency room worker, body bags are shown overlapping each other inside a refrigerated unit at the hospital.

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