Shocking footage has revealed the chaos inside New York hospitals, with desperate doctors begging for more ventilators and medical equipme...
Shocking footage has revealed the chaos inside New York hospitals, with desperate doctors begging for more ventilators and medical equipment to help them tackle the growing crisis as the city's death toll surged past 1,000 on Tuesday and the total US coronavirus death toll hit 4,000.
New York state recorded 76,049 confirmed coronavirus cases by the end of Tuesday and 1,550 people have died from the killer disease.
In New York City alone, there have been 1,096 deaths and 43,119 cases - with 182 more deaths in the last day.
Among its overwhelmed hospitals is the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn where patients line the hallways in their beds and doctors are struggling to keep up with their needs.
The 370-bed hospital has already reached full capacity. One desperate doctor told CBS2 that the hospital had become a 'medical warzone'.
'Well, this is a warzone, a medical warzone,' said Dr. Arabia Mollette, who works in the emergency room. Every day I come, what I see on a daily basis is pain, despair, suffering and healthcare disparities.'
Shocking footage has revealed the chaos inside New York hospitals, with desperate doctors begging for more ventilators and medical equipment to help them tackle the growing crisis
Harrowing footage taken from inside Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York City, shows healthcare workers and medical resources buckling under the strain of the pandemic
New Yorkers struck down by the deadly virus were seen lying on beds in the hospital corridors
Mollette said that the hospital had faced an influx of more than 100 confirmed coronavirus patients and 70 other possible cases.
They are struggling to cope with the demand, she said, pleading for more ventilators and protective equipment.
'We need prayer, we need support, we need gowns, we need gloves, we need masks, we need more vents, we need more medical space,' she said.
Mollette also warned of the toll that working on the frontline is taking on medical staff.
'We need psycho-social support as well. It's not easy coming in here when you know that's what you're getting ready to face,' she said.
The morgue at Brookdale Hospital has also reached capacity, meaning the pandemic's victims are now being placed into a refrigerated trailer outside the facility.
Mollette said she had seen many people die from the virus and warned Americans that no one is safe.
'This virus sees no difference,' she said. 'It has nothing to do with age, has nothing to do with access to healthcare, has nothing to do with socio-economics, race or ethnicity. This virus is killing a lot of people.'
The plea from doctors for more equipment comes as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly urged Trump to send more ventilators to the state, where the coronavirus numbers now dwarf other US states.
The 370-bed hospital has already reached full capacity and has been described as a 'medical warzone'
Doctors wearing masks and protective equipment are pictured amid warnings that hospitals are running out of supplies
Dr. Arabia Mollette (above), who works in the emergency room, pleaded for more ventilators and protective equipment: 'We need prayer, we need support, we need gowns, we need gloves, we need masks, we need more vents, we need more medical space,' she said
In a press conference Tuesday, Cuomo blasted the federal government for creating a 'bidding war' for ventilators that is 'like being on eBay'.
He said that he had bought 17,000 ventilators from China for $25,000 each, a total of $425million, but that he was having to compete against every other state for them and the government.
'Look at the bizarre situation we wound up in; every state does its own purchasing, trying to buy the same commodity.
'The same exact item. So you have 50 states competing to buy the same item, bidding up each other, and competing against each other - it's like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator,' he said.
In a Twitter post, Cuomo also said: 'We are one nation. We need to purchase and distribute supplies working together as one nation. 50 states can't be competing with each other for the same supplies. It makes no sense.'
Trump retaliated Tuesday evening, taking aim at Cuomo in the latest war of words between the two.
When asked about the supply of ventilators to New York, Trump said he had already been very generous.
'I don't know what he said. I think he's been reasonably generous considering he's a Democrat and I think he'd like to run for president so I think he's been pretty generous under the circumstances,' he said.
'I got him ships, I got him hospitals, I got him a lot of things that he never thought – he had paydirt okay and I've been very generous on ventilators.'
He also said that New York hadn't tapped into it's own supply of ventilators first.
'If you look, they had 2,000 and 4,000 in his warehouse, in their warehouse waiting to be picked up. They never picked them up so I'd have to hear it from him face to face.'
He said FEMA had 'sent additional ventilators to New York and New Jersey' and had supplied '250 ambulances and 500 EMTs' to New York.
Trump also said the government is 'holding on' to a stockpile of 10,000 ventilators because 'the surge is coming.'
'We also are holding back quite a bit. We have almost 10,000 ventilators that we have ready to go. We have to hold them back, because the surge is coming and it's coming pretty strong and we want to be able to immediately move it into place without going and taking it, so we're ready to go,' he said.
He went on to say that if state governors wanted more ventilators, they just need to ask. Taking aim at Cuomo, the president said he should stop complaining.
He 'shouldn't be complaining because we gave him a lot of ventilators,' he said.
'No matter what you give, it's never enough.'
Trump also hit out at the state response to the crisis, saying the state had a 'late start' in fighting the pandemic.
'For whatever reason, New York got off to a late start and you see what happens when you get off to a late start,' said Trump, adding that New Jersey was similarly slow.
'New Jersey got off to - and I think both governors are doing an excellent job… but they got off to a very late start.'
He went on to praise Washington and California for their response to the pandemic.
'If you look at Washington state, if you remember that all started in a very confined nursing home,' said Trump.
'And you had 20-odd people dying in that one home but it didn't mean it escaped that home, which means they have a very different statistic to other states.'
Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, reinforced the president's views, saying that she recommended other affected cities and states look to California and Washington for inspiration on how to respond to the pandemic and not New York.
'California and Washington state reacted very early to all this. Washington state had some of the earliest infections. They have kept it low and steady,' said Birx.
Other areas should 'work more like California than the New York metro area,' she added.
'Washington state, about two weeks before New York or New Jersey, California a week before New York or New Jersey, really talked to their communities and decided to mitigate before they started seeing this number,' Birx said.
Birx said it is up to communities 'to not have the experience of New York and New Jersey'.
New York state now has 76,049 cases of coronavirus and 1,550 have died.
The death toll rose by 332 between Monday and Tuesday and is not yet showing signs of slowing down.
The US death toll from the coronavirus climbed past 3,600 Tuesday, eclipsing China's official count.
At least 3,906 people in the US have died from the deadly virus as of Tuesday night, according to data collected by the John Hopkins University.
The global benchmark reports that 3,309 people have died from the virus in China, where the global pandemic originated.
Fears that the US is on track to become the new Italy, whose healthcare system has buckled under the weight of the pandemic, are fast becoming a reality.
Italy has recorded more deaths, with 12,428 as of Tuesday afternoon. However, the US has far surpassed its number of confirmed cases, with the US reaching 181,099 to Italy's 105,792.
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