LeBonheur ER Overwhelmed with Patients

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Parents worried about their children being infected with H1N1 swine flu are filling the emergency room of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. Doctors have seen hundreds of children over the last 24 hours. Not all the children are sick with the flu, but their parents are sick with worry.

Starting Friday night, if you show up at Le Bonheur with a sick child, you will be seen in a tent outside the hospital. The emergency department has seen double the number of patients since the swine flu scare. With the inside overcrowded, outside is the only other place to go.

The condition inside the waiting room at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center Emergency Department is extremely critical.

William May, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, says "we're seeing 350 a day now, of kids who aren't very sick."

Very few have been admitted. The vast majority are showing flu-like symptoms, but nothing serious. The sickness is taking its toll on the hospital.

"Our major problem is we need a place to see these patients to do medical screening on," says May.

So, the hospital is moving its operations outside, in a tent, to accommodate the crowds.

May says "we working a few more shifts, people are coming in, very glad to come in and help out."

The death of White Station Middle School 8th grade student, Michael Howse Jr., could be why the panic is spreading as quickly as the flu bug.

"Very, very small number of kids will develop significant complications," says May.

Howse's Pastor Brandon Porter remembers his visit to the children's hospital.

"I saw maybe 75 children at Le Bonheur with masks on, and so it looked like a third world country event," says Pastor, senior pastor at Greater Community Temple Church of God in Christ.

When asked why Valerie Jones, mother of 3, chose the emergency department over a doctor's office, her answer "they'll do more tests on them to make sure, instead of going to a regular doctor, and they have a lot of kids they won't be able to pay them the right attention."

But, administrators and doctors at the children's hospital insist, pediatricians should be the first level of care.

"It's just an illness that makes you feel bad for a few days and then you get better, and you're far better at home comfortable in bed than you are in an emergency room waiting room," says May.

Doctors are nurses are working more shifts because of the crowds. A few staff members have called in sick, since the spread of the highly contagious virus, but the hospital is taking precautions.