News
April 6, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
As DeKalb County’s number of coronavirus cases continues to increase, a local medical laboratory scientist at Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital is imploring the community to take this pandemic seriously.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” said Kevin Adcock, laboratory manager for both Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb and Ascension Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital.
According to the Tennessee Department of Health, DeKalb County now has seven confirmed cases of COVID-19 while 105 have tested negative.
Last week Governor Bill Lee issued a Safer at Home Executive Order and later put down a more stringent one demanding Tennesseans to stay at home except for essential services.
Still many people seem to be disregarding it.
Speaking on WJLE Friday, Adcock said that a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases is coming and the community should try to limit the spread as much as possible. Symptoms of the virus include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath.
(CLICK LINK BELOW TO HEAR WJLE’s INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN ADCOCK)
“When I was driving over here I noticed there was still a lot of traffic on the road and I wondered where are these people going because they should be staying at home. We have to take this very seriously. This is something we haven’t seen in a long time. In our lifetime we have seen the swine flu and for our grandparents and great grandparents it may have been the Spanish flu of 1918. They call COVID-19 a novel virus and the reason for that is because it is new and that is what is so scary. When a new virus affects the lungs the way this one does and if you have a comorbidity, which is an underlying illness such as a lung disease, your chances of being on a ventilator as a result of attracting COVID-19 are very high. That is why it needs to be taken seriously. I don’t think a lot of us are taking it seriously enough. I don’t want to be an alarmist but we should be alarmed,” said Adcock.
Persons not sick with the virus could still have it and be spreading it to others unaware.
“Remember you can have COVID-19 and not show symptoms up to 14 days but in that time you could be shedding the virus and if you shed that virus to someone who is elderly or to someone with an underlying health condition then you may be looking at an extended hospital stay or fatality. Just because you are healthy and feel great doesn’t mean you should be going around other people who are sick,” Adcock continued.
Although COVID-19 is new and appears to be more dangerous, Adcock said coronaviruses have been in existence for a long time.
“The coronavirus has been around for decades. That is nothing new. But picture the coronavirus as parents that have children. Some of these children cause different diseases and different disease states. For example, if you had a cold in the middle of the winter there is a good chance it was a coronavirus but it was mild and nothing to worry about. But some of the children of the coronavirus can cause very nasty diseases. This one mainly started when it made the jump from animals to humans. That is where most really bad viruses start, first in animals and then to humans, the same as with the influenza that we take a shot for every year,” he said.
“In about 2003 we saw the first cases of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) but it didn’t affect the United States hardly any. There were only a handful of people who got sick and no one died. And then we moved all the way to 2012 when we had our second wave of coronavirus that transmitted from animals to humans called MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) which started in Saudi Arabia. Now we have COVID-19. It is called COVID-19 because it is a coronavirus which was discovered in Huang China in 2019. Scientists are concerned because the coronaviruses we have seen before have never caused the number of deaths this one has. The last time we had a pandemic that caused a lot of deaths was in 2009 with the swine flu (H1N1) which is not a coronavirus. But now we have a coronavirus which is causing a lot of illnesses and deaths and it is spreading very rapidly. It is still trending upward. You hear people say on TV we need to flatten the curve. Well the curve is still going up which means we are still having positive tests and outbreaks around the country. That is why scientists are so determined to get a handle on this and that is why we are shutting everything down and why the Governor has issued a stay at home order,” said Adcock.
While assessments continue for those who suspect they may have the virus, Adcock said actual testing should be available locally within a few weeks.
“There is a difference between collection and testing. Some people say we are testing at Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb or at the health department. We are really not testing. We are collecting samples and sending them away to be tested. Right now we have searched out commercial laboratories that can give us the best turnaround time. That is very important. We have a couple here in the state that are doing a great job for us. We are getting turnaround times in about 36 hours which is a lot better than what we were getting which was seven to ten days. Remember, everybody is overwhelmed with this so to get a turnaround time of 36 hours is really good right now. Hopefully when we do the testing in house we will be looking at a turnaround time of about 30 minutes. But the collection is what we are doing here now and what the health department is doing. That is what is called the nasopharyngeal swab. It goes up the nose to the point where it is almost to the back of your throat. Its uncomfortable but it has to be done if you want to get a good specimen,” said Adcock.
“We do have a test on the horizon for our local area. Right now at Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb and Stones River we have the technology to do the test. We just don’t have the test. The same is true at Saint Thomas West where our microbiology lab is. They have the instruments to do the tests but the tests are just not there yet. When this first started the only ones who could test in the United States were state labs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s why there was such a back log. When we started rolling out this new testing of course it first went to the large commercial laboratories but now we are looking for it to filter down to the local level. Right now we are at the mercy of the state and federal government because we are waiting on them to allocate those tests out to the places of greatest need. It will first go to high risk areas such as New York, California, Seattle and places like that and then it will start filtering down to us later on. We are hoping that by the end of the month or the first of May we will have this and that will be a good time because we are expecting the surge to come around April 16-17 when we see a huge spike in the number of cases,” Adcock continued.
In the meantime, Adcock urges everyone to follow the Governor’s Executive Orders and guidelines for helping to prevent contracting and spreading COVID-19.
“We should be vigilant in making sure that we are doing common sense infection control practices to keep us and our families safe. We have the ability and knowledge on how to prevent transmission. Hand washing is the most important thing you can do. If you go to one of our stores and you are touching things such as the self checkout or you hand your discount card to the cashier, when they give it back to you, clean your hands as soon as you leave the store and using alcohol gel based hand sanitizers are of utmost importance. Also just regular hand washing for 20 seconds with soap and water is recommended. And even after this is over, when you go to a restaurant, take your hand sanitizer with you. When you give the menu back to the waiter, cleanse your hands. That will help keep you healthy,” he said.
So how long will the pandemic last?
“Nobody knows for sure. Warmer weather will help. We expect the surge to peak about April 16-17 and hope it will decrease after that. It has decreased in China and we hope that happens here. We expect it to. Worldwide we are looking at over one million cases and 3,633 cases in Tennessee with 44 deaths so we are not out of the woods yet. I think if we can make it to the end of May with a continuing decline in cases we could see the light of day. But for now seven cases in DeKalb County could become 50 very quickly which is why at Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb and Stones River and at all of our facilities we are taking the utmost care to make sure that we are kept safe as employees so that we can take care of our patients. For example if you go to any of our hospitals today you will see that there is a single point of entry. You have to go in the front door and then you see a nurse who will ask you a series of questions and she will take your temperature. If you have no reason to be there you will be turned away. We have to be very careful of who we let in. We have a no visitation policy right now with very few exceptions. There are some exceptions for end of life, etc. but just for someone wanting to visit somebody we can’t allow that. We have to make sure our employees are safe so we can keep our patients safe and Ascension Saint Thomas is doing a fantastic job of this. We have been given a lot of supplies in the form of surgical masks, N95’s, gowns, etc. We have daily emails from our medical director for Ascension Saint Thomas and I am on a call every morning to get the latest updates. We are doing a good job keeping each other safe and our patients safe. That is our utmost concern,” said Adcock.
If the crisis escalates, Adcock said the hospital has a plan to address an overflow of patients needing care.
“We have a surge plan in place if we started to get overrun with patients and needed to move staff around. Any COVID-19 patients here would be shipped out somewhere else and we would get the well patients in order to take pressure off those facilities and if for example, Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford got hit hard, we have a plan to send employees to support them. We hope it doesn’t come to that,” he said.
As the work load increases for local health care workers, Adcock asks for continued community support for them.
“The people I work with are under a lot of stress right now and we need the support of the community. Thursday one of the companies that does our plant operations put up a sign that says “Heroes Work Here” and they put that up at all our Ascension Saint Thomas facilities in the region. Just things like that help us feel better. I know my staff has had hardly any days off since Christmas and we are all working overtime but we are doing it for the betterment of our community and our hospital that we love so much. Our mantra at the hospital is “With God and each other all things are possible”. I truly believe that and we will get through this,” said Adcock.
Driver and Passengers Escape Car Fire
April 5, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The driver and passengers of a Chrysler escaped unharmed but the car was destroyed in a fire Sunday near the intersection of Jacobs Pillar and Big Woods Road.
Julie Ponder said she was driving along when she smelled something and stopped to investigate. When she opened the car door, Ponder saw flames coming from under the vehicle.
Members of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department responded.
DeKalb Firefighter at scene of car fire Sunday at Jacobs Pillar and Big Woods Road (Video by Jim Beshearse) from dwayne page on Vimeo.
“Meals for Kids” Food Distribution Continues This Week
April 5, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The “Meals for Kids” drive through distribution will continue this week at DeKalb Middle School, DCHS, and at DeKalb West School.
The effort began two weeks ago at the Smithville First Baptist Church Life Enrichment Center and at DeKalb West School but for logistical reasons was changed last week from the church to the schools.
The food pick-up, hosted by the DeKalb County School System with support of local churches will resume Monday and Thursday, April 6 and 9 from 10:30 a.m. until noon at DeKalb Middle School, DCHS, and at DeKalb West School.
“We will be distributing food boxes on Mondays for a three day supply and a two day supply on Thursdays,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps.
“We will have volunteers distributing the food. As you pull up to the buildings we will hand out food for the numbers of students age 18 and younger who are in the car,” he said.
“Students being served must be inside the vehicles driving through the pickup line according to state and federal guidelines. Meals will be served in a “Drive Through” style. Please stay in your car and follow traffic directions at each site. Meals must be taken home and should be refrigerated until served. Please let us know if your child is part of the Back Pack Program because if so the child will also receive those food supplies on Thursdays. Free meals will be made available each week until at least April 24th,” added Director Cripps.
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