X-Message-Number: 21789 Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 01:15:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Christine Gaspar <> Subject: SARS in Toronto...again --0-990177333-1053764103=:19258 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi there Bruce. When we spoke this past evening, I really had no idea why you were called...now I do. Apparantly, there was a cluster of 25 individuals who are being investigated for SARS from our 4th floor- ortho. (North York General Hospital) Also, one of these individuals was sent to St. John's Rehab, infecting four more patients. Then, a patient from St John's was sent back to our ER with respiratory problems, was intubated in our ER and sent to Scarborough Grace ICU, as our ICU was full. So now, our hospital, having produced a gigantic cluster of SARS patients, having infected Scarborough Grace and St. John's is now closed. Our ER is closed so as to not bring new patients in, and there will be no more transfers out. ALL of the staff from this hospital is under "work quarantine" until Saturday afternoon, when a decision will be made by public health as how we should proceed. This means that we can come to work, or stay home, under quarantine guidelines. This may be downgraded tomorrow. This is why you were called. They are trying to track down everyone who was in our hospital in the past two weeks or so, and advise them to be careful. The cluster was limited to that floor, and to the emerg.,(from what they tell us, but they have been so dishonest all along, that I don't believe them anymore). Last week, our staff were told that masks were optional, and so now we have the problem of having unmasked staff members during this outbreak. Incidentally, I never took my mask off. I, along with a few other nurses never trusted what they were saying, and we kept ourselves in full gear. Ha! Well, I do not know what is going to happen in the next few days. All I know is that you should not believe what you hear. This problem, like I said before is not going away anytime soon. Christine Gaspar --0-990177333-1053764103=:19258 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21789