Coronavirus Update: A Look Inside Brookdale Hospital's 'Medical Warzone'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Across New York City, health care workers face tremendous challenges to treat patients, and at Brooklyn's Brookdale Hospital Medical Center they are at their maximum capacity.
Patient beds line the hallways as every inch of this building is now being used because of the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, reports CBS2's Kevin Rincon.
"Well, this is a warzone, a medical warzone," said Dr. Arabia Mollette. "Every day I come, what I see on a daily basis is pain, despair, suffering and healthcare disparities."
Mollette works in the emergency room where more than 100 coronavirus patients have walked through with another 70 people under investigation.
"This virus sees no it is no difference," she said. "It has nothing to do with age, has nothing to do with access to healthcare, has nothing to do with socio-economics, race or ethnicity. This virus is killing a lot of people."
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Like everywhere else, Mollette says they're in need of a lot of things including supplies.
"We need prayer, we need support, we need gowns, we need gloves, we need masks, we need more vents, we need more medical space, we need psychosocial support as well," she said. "It's not easy coming in here when you know that what you're getting ready to face."
This hospital has 370 beds, but that's not enough.
Not only are they running out of room for the sick, they're running out of room for those who've died. The morgue is filled and a refrigerated trailer is now parked outside for overflow.
One thing they have been able to do is develop rapid testing in-house with the ability to conduct 300 tests per day.
In order for things to improve here, they need to see fewer patients, so the message continues to be: Stay home, so they can do their jobs.