Nancy Olson at Hutchinson Health shares a large donation of masks from 3M. Hutchinson Health, like many hospitals across the nation, is seeking personal protective equipment to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect its staff.
Jim Lyons
Dr. Brian Pollmann
While the statewide response to COVID-19 seemed to kick into high gear in the past two weeks, at Hutchinson Health, preparation for the epidemic started in January.
“Preparations included opening the incident command center at HealthPartners to start with,” said James Lyons, president of Hutchinson Health. “We were getting regular updates from that. Information was coming as things were breaking around the world.”
That eventually led to the opening of a local command center to collaborate with HealthPartners, the Minnesota Hospital Association, public health, law enforcement and other parties. Medical professionals across the state formed a broad collaborative approach and planned for the worst.
One key preparation at Hutchinson Health was the increase to respiratory care capabilities. Most COVID-19 cases are mild, but those that become serious often cause respiratory damage. Hutchinson Health had six designated intensive care beds, but that number is growing, as are air isolation rooms.
“Much of what we are working on includes the ability to flex to other spaces,” Lyons said.
Patients who come to the hospital are screened and split between an area designated to provide respiratory care, and an area designated not to provide respiratory care.
As of Tuesday morning, McLeod County did not have any confirmed cases of COVID-19, but there were confirmed cases in every surrounding county. Across the state, hospitals are working with their supply chains to make sure they have sufficient personal protection equipment to keep staff safe and reduce the spread of COVID-19.
“Those are the things our staff wear to keep themselves safe and healthy,” Lyons said late last week. “It’s a national issue ... and we’re working on that like everyone. As of right now we have had enough right here to care for everyone coming to us.”
The Hutchinson Health Foundation is able to receive donations of PPE, which it can sort and add to the supply chain. The next donation time is 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, April 2, at the Hutchinson Health hospital main entrance. 3M in Hutchinson recently contributed to the cause with 1,000 masks.
“During our morning employee safety meeting, one of our occupational medical staff talked about the difficulty peers in local hospitals were having getting supplies,” said Hutchinson 3M plant manager Scott Lemke. “One of the folks in the meeting mentioned we may have some in our employee store.”
The inventory was distributed to Hutchinson Health, Meeker Memorial Hospital in Litchfield, Glencoe Regional Health, Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia and Abbot Northwestern Hospital in the Twin Cities.
“Each person felt great about being able to contribute to the cause,” Lemke said.
Lyons said others who want to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 have the means to do so.
“The greatest thing we need is for people to follow the advice around social distancing, staying home, covering coughs and sneezes and washing often and thoroughly,” he said. “Those things have the greatest impact on slowing the spread and reducing a surge of patients that require hospitalization and urgent care.”
Hutchinson Health is operating under the assumption that there are cases of COVID-19 in McLeod County. That’s why staff have moved to more telephone and video meetings with patients. Surgeries have also been reduced. Minnesota regularly releases numbers of confirmed cases in the state, but it is hard to take the numbers as definitive because most hospitals do not have a sufficient amount of tests.
“We have had individuals who have contacted us by phone with typical symptoms who we have told, ‘We believe you have influenza or COVID-19. We can’t confirm that by test, but you should act as if you do and stay home and quarantine,’” Lyons said. “We would recommend that everyone in the community make their decisions about travel, any sort of gatherings, based on the assumption that there are cases of COVID-19 in our community.”
Dr. Brian Pollmann at Hutchinson Health said the hospital has performed COVID-19 tests.
“Due to the limited supply of tests, we cannot yet test everyone with symptoms,” he said. “Testing is currently reserved for hospitalized patients, nursing home residents, health care workers and health care workers’ families. We hope to roll out more broad testing as it becomes available.”
Looking into the future, Lyons said the situation had to be taken seriously. He said people must recognize that it is not business as usual, and that spring and summer plans will be disrupted, and people must come to terms with that to prevent the situation from becoming worse.
The staff at Hutchinson Health, “have responded heroically,” Lyons said, and he also thanked members of the community for the positive notes, cards and goodies they have given to boost the morale of health care workers.
“Their commitment to take care of people really shines through more and more at these times,” he said. “They do voice concerns, but they stay focused on their jobs while they find answers. It would be unrealistic to think there isn’t fear or concerns with so many unknowns. So, it is unsettling. But I will tell you, they are focused on doing all they can to be prepared to help everyone who comes through our doors.”
Sara Pollmann, front, and Tara Tepley, the owner of The Paint Factory in Hutchinson, practice safe social distancing while bringing in paintings that have been donated to give to assisted living facilities. Tepley said 400-500 paintings have been donated so far.
Uncertain times can bring out the worst in people, such as the hoarding of toilet paper. But it can bring out the best in people as well, as was the case of Tara Tepley, owner and lead instructor of The Paint Factory in Hutchinson.
When Tepley’s plan to invite painters to the studio and donate their work to local assisted living facilities was canceled by Gov. Tim Walz’ executive order closing businesses such as The Paint Factory, she decided to improvise. She reached out on social media, asking people to give away paintings to brighten someone else’s day. The idea was for artists to drop off paintings in collection boxes left at the studio, and then Tepley and others would disinfect them and donate them to assisted living facilities.
The outpouring was unlike anything Tepley expected.
“I didn't know how many we would get, but we have probably collected … somewhere between 400-500 paintings,” she said. “At this point we were able to donate to about 12-15 different facilities. And not just in Hutch, but in New Ulm and other places that came afar to collect these paintings and bring them to their residents.”
Hundreds of paintings have been donated to be given to assisted living facilities and hopefully brighten the days of their residents.
“It was just really a neat thing to see all these (paintings) being brought in,” Tepley added. “Some days we would empty out the bin up front and we'd turn around and look and it was completely full again. So people just kept bringing them in. It was young kids and older kids, too, so it didn't matter what age they were. It was just something that everybody could participate in.”
The idea was also something personal for Tepley, who has an uncle living at a facility in New Ulm. She even reached out to other family members to collect messages for her uncle to add a personal touch to the art she sent him.
“Everybody chipped in … and we put personal messages on the back of the paintings,” she said, “and we kind of did a little scrap-booking type thing. And that actually did end up getting to my uncle and he's already called me a couple times just in tears of how that made his whole day.”
Tepley’s uncle isn’t the only person who has expressed their appreciation for the paintings. While many are frightened of what is happening with the virus, she has heard these paintings have provided a small bit of joy for the residents of assisted living facilities.
“Sometimes all these people had were a visit from a family member once a day that they were able to look forward to. And when they were no longer able to have that, it's just been a really scary time for them,” Tepley said. “So the workers even coming in and just the look on their faces of what this could mean to residents that they work with was pretty powerful.”
Kathy Ludowese, left, and Dee Tepley help make sure paintings are disinfected before they are donated.
Tepley said she has heard of other people and businesses doing what they can to help those in need. That’s what inspired her to do whatever she could to put a smile on someone’s face, and she hopes the community continues to step up in this time of crisis.
“It's a lot of little things all in one. I think everybody's just trying to find a way to do something right now,” she said, “because I think this is the first time that people have realized that this (COVID-19) is all of us in this together. This affects everybody in some way, shape or form.”
A Hector woman was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter following an incident last week, according to a press release from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
According to the criminal complaint, Elizabeth Perry Lynch, 35, called law enforcement at about 1 a.m. Thursday, March 26, and said she shot her boyfriend, who was later identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office as Anthony Tebben.
Elizabeth Lynch
When officers arrived at the scene, Lynch came out of the house and said “I shot him” and asked if an ambulance was on the way. Officers went inside the residence and found the victim on his side on the floor with a pool of blood by his neck and head. Officers also found a semiautomatic handgun that may have been the weapon used.
Children were found upstairs in the residence and were taken into protective custody by Social Services.
According to the complaint, Lynch said she had purchased the gun and ammunition at a store in Montevideo that day. She also said she and Tebben had gotten into an argument and he had thrown a plate at her and broke it just before the shooting.
Lynch said Tebben approached her in an aggressive manner, and that’s when she pointed the gun at him. She claimed she was not aware there was a bullet in the magazine and the gun went off when she flinched. She stated she was scared and thought Tebben was going to hit her, and also that there had been past abuse in the relationship.
An autopsy, however, raised some doubt about one detail in Lynch’s story. According to the autopsy report, a gun muzzle burn was found on Tebben’s head and the bullet appeared to have traveled downward, which is inconsistent with Lynch’s claim that she fired the gun as a result of flinching rather than an intentional act.
Lynch appeared in Renville County District Court Monday and unconditional bail was set at $500,000, or $200,000 with conditions.
