MERS

Medical Staff and Managers

MERS Daily Briefing

Patient Status Update

The patient is no longer on supplemental oxygen, is eating well and generally improving.  The patient is expected to be discharged soon.  Discharge planning will include the CDC regarding ongoing monitoring and future travel plans.

Hospital Staff and Physicians Update

Hospital staff who were exposed to the patient (prior to the patient being placed in isolation) remain in home isolation and continue to be monitored daily.  All of the exposed healthcare workers have tested negative for the MERS virus.

Highlights from the Press Conference

Today we hosted a national press briefing at the hospital.  The focus of the press conference was to highlight the collaboration and joint efforts of the Hospital, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) in recognizing the virus and containing the exposure to the public.

Speaking at the press briefing were Don Fesko, Dr. Daniel Feikin, Medical Epidemiologist of the CDC, Dr. William VanNess, Commissioner of the ISDH, Dr. Alan Kumar, Chief Medical Information Officer, and Governor Mike Pence.  The Governor, the ISDH and the CDC representatives all recognized the tremendous efforts and great work provided by the hospital.  Dr. VanNess assured everyone that the public is safe, and noted that based on the fast action of the hospital and through the cooperative efforts of the hospital, ISDH and CDC, “MERS picked the wrong hospital, wrong city and wrong state to try and gain a foothold.”

Governor Pence emphasized the collaboration of the State and Federal agencies, and stressed the safety of patient care at the hospital.  Governor Pence again praised the hospital for its recognition of this rare disease and fast action to contain the situation and protect the public.  Governor Pence asked the audience to give a round of applause to the hospital and the medical staff for their exemplary work in this situation.  He expressed his confidence that the fast actions of the hospital, ISDH and CDC prevented any outbreak of MERS.

All of the participants emphasized the safety of the hospital and that there is no risk to the community at large.  Follow up media interviews will be occurring with Dr. Kumar and the CDC.

Provided by:  

Tom Bettenhausen, NREMT-P

Chairman & Strike Team Leader - IDHS District 1 EMS Element

Secretary - Indiana District 1 Hospital Emergency Planning Committee Inc.

EMS Coordinator

Community Hospital

Additional infomation on MERS 

4. Eat Well.

No, I'm not gonna get all vegetarian, organic, macrobiotic, live on brown rice...and I'm not going to get all paleo, atkins, no carbs on you either.

I'm just going to say you could eat better.  You know it, I know it and your mother knows it too.

The closer you can eat to the source, the better off you are.  Food created in factories isn't really food.  

Sometimes, even when it looks like food, it's not food.  You probably heard that Subway just vowed to quit putting azodicarbonamide into their bread.  That's right...the same stuff they make those yoga mats out of....Subway's going to stop putting it in their bread.  There are about 500 other food products that use it, but Subway is quitting.

Check the bread you bought at the store, does it contain azodicarbonamide?  I don't care if the FDA says its not a health concern, I don't think eating a yoga mat is something I want to do. 

I won't caution you, though, to simply stay away from things you can't pronounce.  Here's a link where a chemistry professor shows you what a food label on common fruits and vegetables would look like. 

Sometimes, frozen foods can even be more nutritious than fresh produce.  Cheaper too.

So that's our 4th guideline to good health.  Eat well: stay away from the crap, eat lots of different fruits and vegetables, ignore fad diets. 

You can thank me later.

3. Exercise

You don't have to run a marathon and you don't have to join a gym.

But good health requires exercise....getting your heart rate up, optimally, for a minimum of 30 minutes a day.  Don't look at me that way: no matter what your age or lifestyle or health condition, you can do something.

And yes, simply walking briskly counts.

Exercise will make you happier, make you smarter and give you more energy.

Exercise is good for younger folks but it's particularly important as we age.

Lastly...I understand that many of us think that we don't have 30 minutes a day to radically increase the quality of our lives.  So let's shoot for something more manageable, like 10.  Can you spend 10 minutes a day to feel better, get smarter, get more energy, be happier?  10 minutes?  Come on, sure you can.

2. Treat underlying medical conditions.

It stands to reason that you're not going to have optimal health if you let some chronic disease go untreated.

I'd like, though, to suggest that you do more than simply treat a chronic medical condition. I'd like to suggest that you take some time and understand it.   What causes that disease, what is done about it, why does that work? 

Don't just turn your situation over to a doctor: take responsibility for understanding what's going on with your body.

If you have atrial fibrillation....what is it?  What's going on with your body?  What are the symptoms?  What is the risk of not treating it?  What's the difference between a beta blocker and a calcium channel blocker?  What are the side effects of those medications?

Every possible condition, disease or illness has a website.  The CDC is an excellent source of information.  Ask your doctor questions.

All the pharmaceutical companies have websites where you can review their drugs, what they do, side effects...usually in pretty simple to understand language.

Whether it's AF, hypertension, diabetes, thyroid imbalances, whatever your particular chronic condition: make yourself an expert.  It's your body, it's your life.   

Your doctor understands medicine, but they'll never understand your body as well as you do...you've lived in it forever.  So get involved, educate yourself, show an interest.

1. Avoid environmental toxins

In our list of 8 items to maximize your health, we'll start with Avoid environmental toxins.

I'm not going to get into genmod corn or fluoride in your water, you don't need to be a chemist or read an obscure scientific paper...just use that thing between your ears for more than a place to put your hat.

If you smoke, stop.  You know it's not good for you, you don't need statistics and warning labels.  Smoking is bad: stop.

If you're in your workshop sanding or playing with your hobbies or painting a room, wear a mask.  If you're spraying hairspray or deodorant, don't breathe.  If fact, why don't you quit using that spray can stuff altogether?  Common sense...if you're coughing, then stuff that's not good for you is getting in your lungs.  Yes, masks are inconvenient.  So is emphysema.

Wash food before you eat it.  You know that farmers use herbicides and pesticides.  You know those are poisons.  The only reason they use them is to kill things.  

Stop using pesticides and herbicides yourself.  Yes, we all want a green lawn without crabgrass.  But the stuff you're spreading is poison.  And you were out there spraying it on your lawn, wearing your flipflops, with the grandkids coming over to play.

Yes, I know the label says "safe for humans"....and they used to treat headaches with leeches.

Poison: they make it to kill things.  Stay away from it.  Keep your kids and grandkids and pets away from it.

If your work requires some type of personal protective gear, use it.  Not just when the boss is watching, but all the time

You can eliminate a huge amount of toxins just by paying attention and using your common sense. 

Live well, my friends.

Show me eight fingers.

You don't even need your thumbs.  Eight fingers are all you really need to count off the big ticket items to optimal health.

In upcoming weeks, we'll go over them individually, but let's start by putting our list together.

1.  Avoid environmental toxins. Quit smoking, wear a mask when around dust, wash food before eating, that kind of thing.

2.  Treat underlying medical conditions. Diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure....whatever it is, take care of it.

3.  Exercise.  Every single day.  You don't have to run a marathon, walking counts.  But you have to move, stretch, loosen up the muscles, get the heart rate up.

4.  Eat well.  We're not going to get into all that organic or vegetarian stuff here, but eat a balanced diet of foods that don't come from factories.

5.  Keep mentally stimulated.  Don't spend all night watching tv or clicking "like" on facebook.  Learn something new.  Learn to play a musical instrument, memorize a poem, get a new hobby...something you're doing instead of something the people on tv are doing.

6.  Get quality sleep.  We posted a couple weeks ago....sleep restores you physically and mentally.  It's important.  

7.  Manage your stress.  Yoga, golf, bowling, workout, whatever.  Stress isn't just mental, it's hard on your body.

8.  Have an active social life.  The numbers are irrefutable, people with an active social life are happier, more engaged, more resistant to depression, live longer and hold off dementia better than their more isolated counterparts.

It's that easy.  It's not magic, there's no prescription or pill.  Just the same common sense stuff your grandmother probably told you.

Live long, my friends and please, live well.

What's it like to be a doctor

An interesting article from Forbes.  Short and well worth your time to read.