JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE: A Memorial Hospital spokesperson tells Action News Jax reporter Jenna Bourne the air conditioning was fixed Monday night -- after it was broken for five days.
UPDATE: Memorial tells me the A/C was fixed last night, after it was broken for five days https://t.co/SavJobJmYo
— Jenna Bourne (@jennabourneWTSP) June 18, 2019
Patients have been sweltering in the standalone Memorial Emergency Center in East Arlington after the air conditioning broke down five days ago.
“I’m weak, wheezing,” Memorial patient Angel Fussell said.
Fussell was on bed rest Monday, with her emergency inhaler in her lap.
Live at 6: “Heat causes my asthma to flare up. I just want to know, why was I not notified?” The air conditioning at a #Jacksonville emergency room has been broken for 5 days. I started looking into this after uncomfortable patients reached out to @ActionNewsJax wanting answers. pic.twitter.com/6HdNFEsnbm
— Jenna Bourne (@jennabourneWTSP) June 17, 2019
She said she went to the Memorial Emergency Center on Kernan Boulevard and Atlantic Boulevard on Saturday with chest pain.
She said she wound up needing a breathing treatment because of the heat.
“Heat causes my asthma to flare up. And I just want to know, why was I not notified?” Fussell said.
Fussell said she took a picture of the thermostat in her room showing it was 83.5 degrees.
She also took a video of a fan she said was brought into her room.
“And the employees [were] sweating, the nurses, the doctors, sweating,” Fussell said.
TRENDING:
- Guns N' Roses to perform at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville
- 7th American tourist dead in Dominican Republic while celebrating her birthday
- Deadly shooting at apartments near Jacksonville University
- Recall alert: Ragu pasta sauces recalled due to plastic fragments
- St. Johns County bicyclists killed after hit-and-run: Deputies find car, not suspect
Memorial Hospital spokesperson Odette Struys said one of the emergency center’s four compressors went down five days ago.
“I mean, this is Florida and it gets really hot. So unfortunately, our A/C broke down and we’re waiting on the compressor part that’s due in today, so it should be fixed today,” Struys said.
Struys said, normally, the compressor part they need from Oklahoma takes two weeks to deliver, but the company was able to expedite that delivery to five days.
A crane carrying the compressor part showed up at the hospital around 5 p.m. on Monday.
Fussell said she thinks the hospital should have warned patients before they checked in.
“There should have been a sign in the front waiting area, somewhere. Security was sitting at the desk. There should have been something notifying us, hey, the air conditioning is broken and let us make our own decision whether we wanted to stay there,” Struys said.
Struys said the emergency center did not transport any patients to other facilities because of the heat.
STAY UPDATED: Download the Action News Jax app for live updates on breaking stories
Cox Media Group