Broward Health Medical Center adds temporary mortuary amid surge
With Florida in the midst of a third wave of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and fatalities, Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale acknowledged on Saturday that it has been forced to set up temporary refrigerated mortuary space.
In a statement late Saturday afternoon, the hospital told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “We, like other health systems across the region, have had to use temporary mortuary coolers, an unfortunate result of the loss of life experienced these past months from COVID19.”
The question of whether the portable facilities are in use, or have been brought in as a precautionary measure went unanswered on Saturday.
On Friday, a Florida-record 1,486 coronavirus deaths were reported for the week (212.3 daily average). Of those, 29 of the additional deaths are people 29 or younger.
Dr. J.J. Rajter, a pulmonary critical care physician, has been seeing patients at BHMC for over 15 years. He just heard about the portable morgue Saturday, but is hardly surprised that there is a need for one.
“What has happened across the country presently, there is a massive spike of admissions,” Rajter explained. “This is worse than at any other point in the pandemic, in my opinion. Hearing that truck or whatever is out there ... that part does not surprise me at all. The ICU is overwhelmed.”
Last week, cases increased by 16.6% in Broward County, 17.6% in Palm Beach County and 9.9% in Miami-Dade County, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
The seven-day trend of new cases has dipped in the past three days to 20,134, though that number is still 28.3% higher than the previous record (15,691 in Jan. 10’s data) that had existed until July 29’s report. The record for seven-day average of daily cases now is 21,788 from Monday’s data.
Because the state releases the number of new cases and deaths by the dates they occurred rather than the date they were reported, both numbers are likely higher than what the CDC releases.
“I don’t know if they are using it or anticipating the need for it,” Rajter said. “I personally feel that we are in very difficult times. We are seeing large numbers of people who, for whatever reason, don’t get vaccinated. [They] become sick and instead seeking medical attention … they linger at home. And when they finally seek medical attention, they are in dire circumstances.”
The statement from Broward Health Medical Center goes on to read: “We join the families in grieving the loss of their loved ones even as our dedicated caregivers to do everything in their power to care for our COVID patients.”
The Sun Sentinel is still contacting regional medical centers to see if any others have had to bring in portable morgues.
JFK Medical Center in West Palm Beach responded that they are not using the temporary morgues “at this time.”
Neither are the Delray Medical Center (in Delray Beach and Lake Worth) and St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, which are all managed by Tenet Health.
On Monday Westside Regional Medical Center in Davie and Plantation reports they have not had to use portable morgues.