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So There WAS A Bedbug Problem at Kings County Hospital
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 13, 2010
Modified Jul 13, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 13, 2010
Modified Jul 13, 2010
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After receiving an informal report that EMS units were "being triaged in the hallway due to a bedbug infestation in the triage room" at Kings County Hospital yesterday, we contacted a hospital spokeswoman, Hope Mason, for confirmation. She assured us that while an exterminator was called in, no bedbugs were found and the triage rooms were fully operational. So you can imagine our surprise when we opened up our copy of the Wall Street Journal this morning (subscription required) and found THIS:
A bedbug was found on a patient brought to Kings County Hospital in East Flatbush, according to a spokeswoman for the Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs the city's public hospitals. As a precaution, "the triage room in which the patient was seen was fumigated," said the spokeswoman, Evelyn Hernandez. "Kings County Hospital has several triage rooms, and medical personnel continued to see other patients in other triage rooms."
Well, well, well. We called Ms. Mason back today, ready to raise Cain, but she was profusely apologetic, telling us that when she called over to the that part of the hospital, she was simply given the wrong information. "There was an individual patient who had a bug, and that bug was left behind in the triage room. When the bug was found, it was put into a jar and contained. The exterminators came and as a precaution they fumigated the whole room. It was just one bug contained in one room, which was was treated at 9 a.m. Everything went back to normal." Mason insists there was never any disruption to patient triage, adding, "We hope you'll cover us when something good happens!" For sure, but we're probably going to call Hernandez next time.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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