When you take in a deep lungful of cold crisp winter air, you may feel the glory of a December morning.
But that big chill is hard on people with heart disease, asthma or COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cold air restricts the blood vessels and makes it harder to breath.
As a result, some area hospitals have become crowded this month.
“Cold stresses the body,” said Dr. Thomas Koobatian, director of emergency medicine at New Milford Hospital, part of Western Connecticut Health Network. That stress, he said, hits people with chronic disease hard.
“It can even affect people with things like diabetes,” Koobatian said. “We’re seeing the same volume of patients in the ER, but we’re seeing a lot sicker people.”
New Milford Hospital isn’t alone.
“Cold weather is harder on everyone,” said Dr. Michael Ivy, chief medical officer at Bridgeport Hospital. “It’s not so much people with snow-related injuries. It’s elderly people who have compromised medical conditions.”
Ivy said Bridgeport has 177 medical-surgical beds for adults inpatient care.
“We’ve been running close to capacity,”
On Monday, Bridgeport Hospital emergency department treated 251 patients, Ivy said. Normally, the emergency room there sees 210 to 220 patients a day, he said.
“It was a real red-letter day for us.” Ivy said.
At Greenwich Hospital, spokeswoman Irene Villaverde, said the hospital census has also been running high for the past two or three weeks, at about 140 in-patients.
“The mix of patients has been pretty typical,” she said. “Today, we were seeing more falls.”
At Danbury Hospital — which is also part of Western Connecticut Health Network — Dawn Martin, director of patient services, said the hospital census has been running around 300 patients, which, she said, is close to capacity for the hospital’s adult patient beds. Read Full Article
“It makes it hard to place people,” Martin said.
Martin said that summers are usually busier for emergency departments because there are a lot more sports-related injuries. But in winter, there are more people admitted to the hospital, including people with heart attacks brought on by snow shoveling .
Ordinarily, Martin said, the hospital doesn’t see this kind of volume until January.
“It’s early this year,” she said.
So is the seriously cold weather.
Bill Jacquemin, chief meteorologist with the Connecticut Weather Center in Danbury said Wednesday, that average daytime temperatures in western Connecticut for December run around 35 degrees to 40 degrees,
This December, he said, temperatures are averaging 5 to 7 degrees below normal. While there have been a few warmers that average days — one is expected on Sunday — Jacquemin said there have also been a lot of December days this month locked in the 20s, with evening temperatures dropping into the teens.
Not every hospital is seeing a crowd of winter patients. Melissa Lopardo, spokeswoman at Stamford Hospital said while there have been the occasional upward bumps, the hospital census has been fairly normal over the month.
And Ivy said he expects volumes to go down as Christmas approaches, as surgeons put off elective procedures until after the holidays. At Bridgeport Hospital, he said, there was a drop in the inpatient numbers around Thanksgiving for that reason.
Koobatian, at New Milford Hospital, said that what’s worrisome is this: hospitals are running at near-capacity before the influenza season hits.
“The usually starts after the holidays,” Koobatian said. “People travel all over the country and come back with the flu.”
“We’re tight as it is,” Koobatian said of the number of people filling bed in New Milford and Danbury hospitals. “It will be harder with the flu.”
bmiller@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345