Patients share their stories of treatment at RI’s COVID field hospitals – The Providence Journal

Brian Amaral|The Providence Journal

They all remember how quiet it was: Three patients at two COVID field hospitals in Rhode Island, and thats the first thing they say when theyre asked what its like to be inside one.

After a few hours or days in emergency rooms and hospital wards, with doctors buzzing around talking about code red this, code blue that, theyd been taken to one of the states new field hospitals. Suddenly all they could hear was a fellow patient coughing or the footsteps of doctors and nurseswho would occasionally poke their heads into theroom. Not so much as a room but a bit of space cordoned off by curtains on the vast floor of a convention center or an old bank building.

How are you doing? Need anything? recalled Sam Rachiele, who was at the field hospital at the Rhode Island Convention Center last week. Want anything? Want a doctor, need a nurse?

As the state faces an overwhelming surge of COVID cases and hospitalizations, a few dozen patients have been treated so far at two field hospitals set up since last week, one at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providenceand one at an old Citizens Bank building in Cranston.

Rachiele is one of them. He was treated for COVID last week at the Rhode Island Convention Center field hospitalrun by Lifespan. It was an unexpected turn in a year with plenty of them. Months ago, his son, an electrician, was telling him how his company was putting in some of the wiring at one of the field hospitals.

He remembers thinking: Field hospitals? The hospitals are so big, there are so many in Rhode Island, why do you need extra hospitals?

But then a friend, a doctor, warned him: Its going to be booming by the end of the year.

And he was 100% right, Rachiele said.

He tested positive on Nov. 21. A Cranston resident, he is 75 years old. In March, he had open-heart surgery, which was the sort of underlying medical condition he was concerned about.

His symptoms were manageable at first. But early last Tuesday, he was in the bathroom washing his hands,and he passed out. His back hit the toilet. The toilet broke his fall and he in turn broke the toilet. His wife, Joan, called for help and he was taken to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence by ambulance.

I just had my fingers crossed that my wife would eventually come and pick me up, he said. You hear so many people go in and never come out. Thats the only thing that went through my mind. My family is No. 1 with me.

The scene at Rhode Island Hospital was unimaginable. This was 2020, in the United States, and he was fourth in line just to get into a room. When the hospital staff had him walk around to test his oxygen levels, he saw everyone else who was there: Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles. People with tubes and wires coming out of them, three or four doctors and nurses around them doing what they could. People being treated in hallways. People in their 20s and 30s.

It was like a horror movie, Rachiele said. Hes heard the doubters people who say the hospitals arent actually full.

Youve got to take their hands and show them, Rachiele said. Its real. Its real.

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As Rhode Island hospitals fill up and the alternative care sites open, the hospitals running them have followed the same general principles on bringing in patients: First, people at the end of their hospital stay who arent so sick that they need intensive or critical care, but still too sick to go home.

By Wednesday, Rachiele was in that group. He hadn't recovered, but he was better off than the other people in Rhode Island Hospital, they told him. He didnt need oxygen anymore, and there were sicker people who needed his bed.

He was taken to the field hospital by ambulance, up into the convention center via a back ramp.

When he got inside, he was in a bed not a cot, but a real hospital bed looking up at the lights on the high ceiling. The rows are named after local streets. He was on Waterman Street. Room C1014.

Theyd check on him all the time, take his blood pressure and other vitals and make sure he was OK and had his medications. His wastebasket couldnt get half full without them coming to empty it. And they wiped everything down. All the staffers were, of course, decked out head to toe in personal protective equipment.

On Friday, hed improved even more and was ready to go home. His wife didnt pick him up. Instead he was taken by medical transport (its hard to get to the doors of the convention center) at about 4 p.m. Friday. He was thankful to go home but also thankful for the few days he spent in the convention center. Now hes back home with Joan, on the mend, thinking about what the state needs to do to make sure more people dont have to see what he saw inside Rhode Island Hospital.

The restrictions in place now on businesses and society? They should be even more powerful, and Gov. Gina Raimondo should go even further, Rachiele said. You won't have an economy left to save if this keeps going on, Rachiele said.

Youve gotta do something about these people who arent taking it seriously, Rachiele said. Theyve gotta take them in there and show them.

As of Tuesday morning, 22 patients were in the Convention Center field hospital, and a few dozen had been treated and discharged, according to Lifespan.

At Care New Englands hospital site, at the former Citizens Bank building on Sockanosset Cross Road, they weretreating nine peopleas of Tuesday morningand had discharged 12 since they opened.

Two of them were Anthony and Elizabeth Piccirillo, a married couple who live in Cranston.

After an exposure and mindful of Gov. Raimondos urgings, they went to get tested at the new McCoy Stadium site in Pawtucket before Thanksgiving. The results came back: both positive.

Anthony, 71, got sicker than Elizabeth, 69. At first it was just cold-like symptoms, but he became feverish and had the chills so bad that he had to take hot showers. Their daughter, who has asthma, urged them to check their blood oxygen levels. Theyd gotten lower and lower, dropping to levels considered hypoxic high 80s, low 90s.

Their son and daughter urged them to go to the hospital, which they did last Wednesday. They arrived first at the Kent Hospital emergency department in Warwick. Anthony had never even spent a night in a hospital. After about 24 hours, they were stable enough to go to the field hospital, not well enough to go home. So they went in two ambulances to the facility on Sockanosset Cross Road, where they were wheeled in on stretchers Thursday night.

There wasnt any fear, Anthony said.

We were together, which helped, Elizabeth said.

In fact, they felt a little relieved. Everything had been explained to them in detail: They werent 100% better, but they were headed that way. It was basically a step-down unit.

They had a double room in the space, so they got to stay together. Like Rachiele at the facility in Providence, they said it was quiet except for the coughing.

And like many people out there in the world, they had to wear masks. But these were over their eyes: The lights on the ceiling dont shut off, so to get to sleep, theyd need to cover their eyes.

They really cant say enough about the care they got, from their arrival at Kent to their departure, when their son-in-law picked them upon Sunday.

Everything they needed. They take their coffee with cream? Maybe well go out and get you some. One of the nurses offered to go to Whole Foods, Anthony said. Their daughter dropped off some things for them and a security guard met her out front to get them.

Anthony was on oxygen until Sunday morning, but no longer needed it. They went home. The experience was stressful and strange, but the staff there made it work, they both said.

We want to get the message out about the dedication and quality of care, the dedication and the courage, Elizabeth said. Everybody we met from the doctors to the janitorial staff.

Said Anthony: Its a good place. Were lucky to have it. This will all pass, but at least we were prepared for it.

bamaral@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7615

On Twitter: @bamaral44

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Patients share their stories of treatment at RI's COVID field hospitals - The Providence Journal