"We can't pull the chain." A Florida hospital runs out of water after Hurricane Ian

By Deon J. Hampton, Kalhan Rosenblatt, Aria Bendix and Corky Siemaszko -

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Hurricane Ian has created a biohazardous situation in at least one Florida hospital near where the storm made landfall.

Staff at Health Park Medical Center in Fort Myers told our sister network, NBC News, that the center's running water was shut off Wednesday and has not yet been restored.

If water service is not restored soon, workers fear outbreaks of disease and infection as a result of the storm.

[Ian loses power after making landfall in South Carolina but the danger remains.

Florida counts more than 30 dead]

Both patients and nurses have been forced to defecate in plastic bags and deposit waste in overflowing garbage cans, according to staff and patients.

Workers reported that they are unable to properly disinfect medical instruments for reuse, and some patients have gone more than a dozen hours without drinking water.

Without running water, hospital staff have had to place plastic bags in restrooms at Health Park Medical Center in Fort Myers, Florida.NBC News

Details of the water cut and its aftermath were confirmed by four employees, who asked not to be identified by name for fear of jeopardizing their jobs, as well as three patients.

"Without the water, we can't flush the toilet," said an operational assistant.

“We can't wash our hands.

It's a bit off-putting, but we have to do what we have to do,” he added.

[A small farming town is cut off because of Ian]

Both patients and staff have been forced to urinate in containers that are then thrown down the drain, according to aides.

“If we have to poop, we bag it and put it in our biohazard bins,”

said one attendee.

“If someone accidentally puts toilet paper or poops in the toilet, our poor housekeepers have to come and take it out so they can pour a bucket of water to try and flush it down the drain,” he added.

Trash bins overflow at Health Park Medical Center.NBC News

Lee Health, the hospital's parent network, said Friday that its facilities and staff have faced numerous challenges while operating since Ian made landfall.

“The precautions we have taken were necessary due to the lack of running water in our community.

We assure our patients and staff that the actions we have taken today address these challenges, which were the result of a disaster and infrastructure failure of this magnitude.

Lee Health is committed to its patients, its staff and its community, and will do whatever it takes to ensure safe, quality care for our patients and our teams," said Mary Briggs, a spokesperson for Lee Health, in a statement. 

Some staff members said they did not blame Lee Health for the situation, saying the center was already overwhelmed due to COVID-19.

The hurricane, which disrupted water supplies throughout the county, brought the hospital's infrastructure and resources to the point of collapse.

Health Park Medical Center was one of nine Florida hospitals that had been without running water as of Thursday.

Hurricane Ian made landfall just east of Fort Myers on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour).

It has caused widespread electricity and sanitation outages.

At least 23 people have died in Florida from the storm, authorities confirmed Friday night.

Satellite images show how Ian went on a rampage on Sanibel Island

Oct. 1, 202200:36

Health Park Medical Center began evacuating highest-risk patients Thursday, by ambulance and helicopter.

“They are airlifting children and hospice patients because there is no water,” said a patient named Roberta Hines, who was treated at the hospital after being injured in a fall.

Hines, 63, spoke to an NBC News reporter as she left the center Friday for a cigarette.

As she spoke, helicopters could be seen landing and taking off from the hospital.

[The destruction on these Florida islands is overwhelming.

As the rescues continue, despair increases]

The assistant to the operation said that ambulances from 10 counties have come to help transport patients.

"The feat that everyone has achieved is just incredible," they said.

Without running water, doctors' ability to perform operations has been compromised.

However, said the second assistant, several emergency operations have had to be carried out since the water went out.

"We cannot wash our hands well to operate on patients

," denounced the first assistant.

“We don't have a way to sterilize our operating instruments, so that means whatever instruments we have we have to make them last because we can't reuse them on patients,” he explained.

[Stunning footage of Ian's devastation in Arcadia where many Latinos plead for help]

A patient named Michelle, who did not want to give her last name, said she was taken to Parque de la Salud after the storm because she hit a piece of wood.

“Since then conditions have worsened,” he said, the bandages on his forearms visible.

“Not only can the toilets not be used, but they are running out of food and water.

It's one thing on top of another,” she explained.

His store lost power but he still opened it to help his customers (and he bought them pizza two hours away)

Sept.

30, 202202:07

Patient Dan Culligan, 70, spent a couple of days in hospital with persistent back pain after surgery and spoke in the hospital car park as he waited to be transferred to a shelter.

"I felt trapped," he said.

The second operational assistant, a longtime Florida resident who lived through Hurricane Andrew and other major storms, said the situation at the hospital is "nothing like anything I've ever experienced."

[“Everything is Destroyed”: Latina from Naples tearfully recounts how Ian destroyed homes in her community]

As Ian's winds intensified, hospital workers said they moved patients into hallways for safety and carried patients to upper floors from ground level.

"They were accepting patients for emergency medical service until the winds reached 80 miles per hour," said the first assistant.

“And once that happened, we couldn't open the doors because it risked compromising the integrity of the hospital,” he recalled.

Since then, the hospital has returned to receive some patients, despite the water cut.

The first assistant said the hospital parking lot was flooded during the storm.

"We saw our cars floating sideways... My car is wrecked," they said.

When the power went out, the two aides said, the hospital was forced to rely on a generator and choose between running the water or the air conditioning.

The administrators chose air conditioning.

The generator needs water to run, so a hospital water truck keeps it running, a surgical technician told NBC News.

[“I lost my house but I have life”: a Latino recounts how he rescued a neighbor while Ian was whipping them]

After patients were forced to go without drinking water for hours, said the first attendee, "we ended up giving them the bottled water that we carried in our bags."

So the red biohazard bags began to accumulate with waste and excrement inside, and people who needed to defecate were directed to specific bathrooms "so we could try to contain the smell," the aide said.

But by the end of the day on Friday, the surgical technologist said, the portable toilets had arrived at the hospital.

Deon J. Hampton reported from Fort Myers, Kalhan Rosenblatt, Aria Bendix, and Corky Siemaszko from New York.