YONKERS, N.Y. – A nurse furiously pushes down on a man's chest as five other staff in full protective gear surround the patient's bed.
Suddenly, one throws up his arms and steps backward. “OK, move! Everybody move!” are the instructions. Moments after they back away, the patient's heart is shocked, his arm spasms and he shakes on the bed.
Soon after, he is placed on a ventilator. He has been saved — for now. Many more at Saint Joseph's Medical Center have not. "It’s been a nightmare.
We have a volume of sick people like you can’t believe. In one shift, I pronounced six people dead," said Dr. Anthony Leno, the hospital's director of emergency medicine, who on average pronounces one dead in a 10-12 hour shift.