New York City Hurricane Sandy Flooding Causes Evacuation Of Fragile Patients At Roosevelt Island Coler Hospital - An Eyewitness Report

Image Of Ambulances Arriving To Evacuate Roosevelt Island Coler Hospital Patients From Judy Berdy

Reported last night on the evacuation of some patients at Roosevelt Island's Coler Hospital

  Image of Coler Goldwater Hospital From NY Hospital Flowers

to Goldwater Hospital due to lack of electricity at Coler caused by Hurricane Sandy flooding. Assembly Member Micah Kellner confirmed last night that some patients were being evacuated from Coler stating:

the most vulnerable being moved to Goldwater.  Others are resting in place. 

Roosevelt Island Historical Society President Judy Berdy was assisting during the evacuation. Ms Berdy shares this report and photos of what happened.

I was on my way to watch the first tram leave the Island on Tuesday at 4 p.m. A call came, would I like to help out the moving of patients from Coler to Goldwater Hospitals? I have been a Community Board member at Coler for years and I said sure. Any additional pair of hands would help.

I was at Goldwater Hospital from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. There are about 100 patients from Coler that had to be transferred to Goldwater. Coler has been without electricity since the storm and the critical patients were moved tonight and through the night to the Goldwater campus.

It was a long process of getting the residents ready to be moved, getting them to ambulances a and having space in Goldwater ready to receive them. They had to be moved down the darkened staircases some in wheelchairs, many on stretchers. Luckily Coler is only 5 stories, but even a few flights of steps can be harrowing.

Image From Judy Berdy

As with the NYU evacuation it sounds simple, but moving medically fragile patients whether infants or elderly is a treacherous operations.

 Image From Judy Berdy

When the ambulances arrived at Goldwater

Image From Judy Berdy

we saw that they were manned with mutual aid teams from all over the country some were from Indiana, Illinois and South Carolina.

Image From Judy Berdy

They had left their states and were sent to Fort Dix to be deployed. Our ten ambulances had wonderful and dedicated EMT's and Paramedics.

 Image From Judy Berdy

The executive and departmental staffs were on had to check in each patient and get them to a warm bed upstairs.

We handed out blankets and swiftly they moved the patients to the units. Some were stunned to suddenly be moved and arrive at a strange place in the middle of the night.

The operation will go on till dawn with dedicated staff on hand to help everyone arriving.

The northern end of the island where Coler and Octagon are located were hit much worse and the entire basement of Coler had 6 feet of water in it.The staff at both campuses are amazing. They had been there for days. Some came in the ambulances to take care of their patients.

The seawalls had been beached, One car in the Coler east side parking lot ended up against the hospital wall, driven there by the wave surge.

Without new seawalls and reinforced embankments no new construction should be permitted. It may be a once in a century event, but this is the time to demand a safer island. Walk around the campuses and you can see the high water marks along with the damage it caused.

It is so sad to see the future of Goldwater. She suffered minimal damage and flooding during the hurricane. It is a tough old building but can withstand anything, but the bulldozer. Where will our fragile people go when her doors close Some have had plans made and many still await to learn their future.

Ms. Berdy reference to new construction and the bulldozer is to the Cornell NYC Tech project that will be built on the site of Goldwater Hospital after it is demolished although the closing of Goldwater Hospital had been planned before Cornell NYC Tech was contemplated.