Hospital Evacuated After Boiler Explosion

A boiler explosion forced the evacuation or discharge of 25 to 30 patients from Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge yesterday after temperatures in the building plunged into the upper 50s, hospital and fire officials said.

So read the headline and first paragraph of the article in the Boston Globe on Thursday morning. Guess where I was on Wednesday afternoon? Life with me is never dull, although I really wish it would be sometimes. I realize I had nothing to do with the boiler at Mt. Auburn, but it does seem suspect that this happened while I was there and less than hour away from surgery. I’m getting ahead of myself though so let me back up a few days.

When last I left you, I was prepping for an IVP (intravenous pyelogram) on Tuesday morning. The night before preparation, magnesium citrate, was slightly less vile than the Fleet phosphosoda or Go-Litely that I’ve had to drink before major surgeries. I choked down about half of it, spent several hours in the bathroom, and managed to get a little sleep. I had the IVP done on Tuesday morning. It was merely a series of x-rays of my kidneys, ureters, and bladder with and without dye. It was the most interactive test I’ve had done, lots of lie this way, move this leg; hold your breath, etc. At the end of it, the radiologist said that it showed some mild/moderate hydronephrosis of my right kidney and he would be sending the report to Dr. Karian. This was pretty much what we already knew, so it really didn’t provide the answers we were hoping for.

I wasn’t feeling great on Monday or Tuesday, was running a fever, and was unable to eat or drink much. By the time Pat came home from work on Tuesday evening, we both knew I was dehydrated and a hospital visit was inevitable. I decided I wanted to sleep in my own bed so we agreed to go to Mt. Auburn in the morning. Wednesday morning I was in even worse shape, so Pat made a few phone calls and Dr. Karian told me to go to the Emergency Room. He called ahead and made a reservation for me – told them what tests to do and to prep me for a stent placement on Wednesday afternoon. So I settled into a bed in the ER, got some nice IV fluids and pain meds which immediately made me feel better. Around 3pm, anesthesiology did their pre-surgery prep and told me I would be going into the Operating Room in less than hour. And then the hospital shook.

We heard a loud explosion and felt the building shake – this was immediately followed by the fire alarms going off. To me it sounded like a car had driven into the building. We were off in a quiet back section of the ER so we didn’t see any chaos or have a clue what was going on. My nurse popped in, said they didn’t know what had happened or what was going to happen, to just sit tight. We smelled smoke initially, but that quickly faded. We knew the fire department was there and figured if we were in danger, they would evacuate us. We sat in our cubicle with the glass doors closed waiting. Then a friendly face appeared in our doorway and in walked Annabelle, our favorite oncology social worker. She had the scoop on what was going on – the main boiler had exploded and the backup boiler was not functioning either. There was no heat or hot water in the main building, and all surgeries had been cancelled. We had definitely begun to feel the temperature dropping and Pat was sent off to the oncology department to find some blankets (because that building actually still had heat). Outside temps were in the 20s so it wasn’t going to take long for the inside temperatures to plummet.

Eventually Dr. Karian arrived and gave me two options. First was to go to another hospital and have the procedure done that night, or wait until Mt. Auburn was re-opened, which he estimated might be Saturday because of all the surgeries that had to be re-scheduled. I thought for a minute, and then agreed to go to Melrose Wakefield Hospital to have the procedure done that night. So we processed the transfer paperwork, got directions to the other hospital, hopped in our car and headed off. Dr. Karian said traffic was bad and suggested back roads. I made the phone calls to family and friends to let them know of the change in location, though I had just gotten a morphine injection so I’m not really sure who I called or what I said.

We got to the hospital in plenty of time, checked in and went through the pre-surgery prep once again. Dr. Karian finally showed up and off to surgery I went. All went smoothly and I was back in recovery an hour later. Before the surgery we had talked and Dr. Karian felt it would be best if I spent the night and got some additional IV antibiotics. I agreed and so after my surgery I went off to a room and finally was able to eat something (I hadn’t had any food for over 48 hours at this point) and those saltine crackers were the tastiest things ever. I was ready to go home first thing Thursday morning, but it took a little while to get my discharge processed and my IVs removed so I didn’t get sprung until around 3 in the afternoon. I spent the rest of the day and all of Friday resting and recuperating.

The reason I had to have the stent placed was because the pain from the hydronephrosis had gotten too severe and I also had developed a urinary tract infection and probably some other infection as well. Dr. Karian decided the safest thing to do would be to place the stent but not do anything else while he was in there. Last time he removed polyps, this time he didn’t see any polyps so he placed the stent and got out. The stent will dilate the ureter and keep it open. The plan is to leave it in for a few weeks to give it a chance to work and to give my infections a chance to clear up. We’ve decided to remove the stent in the operating room this time, even though it can be done in Dr. Karian’s office. He will use this opportunity to poke around, look at my kidney and ureter and try to figure out what is causing this. It’s the best option we have right now as all the other tests and scans have been inconclusive. I’m really hoping we get some answers – I’m a bit tired of all of this.

And that pretty much sums up my week. One pain has been replaced by another which should begin to subside as the antibiotics kick in. I’m taking it a day at a time – moving slowly, but planning to get back to work this week. If I don’t update again this week, Merry Christmas everyone!

Posted by jean at December 18, 2005 10:09 PM