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White substance disrupts 6 at hospital
By JAMIE JONES
© St. Petersburg Times, SPRING HILL -- Part of Oak Hill Hospital was shut down for at least five hours Wednesday after a man scheduling an appointment discovered a mysterious white substance on his hands. The man, who was not identified by the hospital staff, and five employees in the scheduling office were sequestered in private rooms until a hazardous-waste team from St. Petersburg arrived about 4 p.m. to decontaminate them, said hospital spokeswoman Nancy Kaminski. She did not believe the substance was dangerous but was not certain. "We expect it to be dry toothpaste on his hands," Kaminski said. "We're just trying to take the proper precautions." After decontamination, the six people were going to have nasal swabs to determine whether they were exposed to any bacteria such as anthrax, Kaminski said. Results should be available today, she said. The incident began about noon when a man in his late 60s entered the hospital to schedule tests, Kaminski said. He went back to his car to retrieve some papers and when he returned, he noticed a white substance on his hands, Kaminski said. He appeared surprised, she said. The hospital enacted its emergency policy for handling possible biochemical situations. The staff members and the man were sequestered, and emergency officials and a hazardous-waste materials team were called, she said. "We have a policy in place and we followed it," Kaminski said. Patients in the hospital weren't affected, she said. Southern Waste Services arrived in a white pickup truck filled with blue barrels. Kaminski could not provide details of its decontamination procedure, and company officials couldn't be reached for comment late Wednesday. Lt. Joe Paez of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office said his deputies had heard a somewhat conflicting story from the man who discovered the substance. The man told deputies he got the substance from inside the hospital, Paez said. Hospital officials said he didn't. Paez said that because there was no apparent criminal activity, the Sheriff's Office probably will not be involved in the case. Oak Hill's scheduling area was closed for the afternoon and employees were moved to another area of the hospital, Kaminski said. Kaminski said she did not want the public to panic. The white substance, she said, likely was benign. She said the hospital simply wanted to take every precaution it could to ensure the safety of patients and staffers. "We just want to be safe," she said.
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From today's Hernando Times |
