Suspected Hazmat Sparks Changes at Pa. Hospital ER
June 15--Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest closed its regular emergency room entrance for four hours Thursday afternoon after one of its patients appeared to have been exposed to a hazardous material, authorities said.
The patient is a Berks County woman who checked in about 2 p.m. after parking her car at the emergency room entrance. Haz-mat workers collected items from her car trunk for closer inspection, Salisbury Township Chief Allen Stiles said.
"They're being tested, and I should know sometime tomorrow what the substance was, and whether it was hazardous or not," he said.
The hospital's emergency room, which had diverted its traffic to the ambulance-bay entrance, was accepting patients again at its usual entrance by 6:15 p.m. The patient who raised the alarms remained at the hospital Thursday night.
"We had an individual come to the hospital who claimed to be exposed to some unknown substance that caused her to have symptoms," Stiles said. "A doctor in the emergency room thought there might have been an exposure to a hazardous material," and the doctor called police.
The doctor's report resulted in the dispatching of the Lehigh County Haz-Mat team along with the Western Salisbury Fire Company, and Allentown firefighters and haz-mat workers. They all worked together at the hospital to check out the woman's car.
Stiles declined to describe the suspicious substance or the woman's symptoms. A county haz-mat management specialist sent the substance to a laboratory, and the lab probably will have preliminary findings on Friday, he said.
"No one was in danger at Lehigh Valley Hospital, so it worked out pretty well," Stiles said. No one else involved appeared to have suffered the symptoms the woman exhibited, he said.
-- Frank Warner
Copyright 2012 - The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
