美国国家公共电台 NPR As She Evacuated Patients From The Hospital, Her Home Burned

 

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

In Northern California last week as massive wildfires spread rapidly through the town of Santa Rosa, two hospitals were evacuated². KQED's April Dembosky has this story of one nurse who worked through the night to get patients out safely, even though her own house was in the path of the flames.

APRIL DEMBOSKY, BYLINE³: Julayne Smithson was working the overnight shift in the ICU of Kaiser Hospital when the fires started racing⁴ through Santa Rosa early Monday morning. She had no idea how close they were. She was too busy taking care of her patient.

JULAYNE SMITHSON: One of the nurses came up to me. And she said, Julayne, I'm sorry but your house is not going to make it.

DEMBOSKY: Smithson is 55. She recently moved from Indiana and had just bought a new home a few weeks ago. From the hospital window, she could see the flames moving through her neighborhood.

SMITHSON: I was so busy working the last couple of weeks that I didn't get my insurance, which I never do. I never ever, ever go uninsured. And I kept saying, you know, tomorrow I'm going to do that. Tomorrow I'm going to do that.

DEMBOSKY: Smithson asked a colleague to watch her patient while she raced home to try to save a few things. The fire was a block away.

SMITHSON: I knew I didn't have much time. So I ran inside. And I thought I have to get my nursing documents because if I'm going to lose everything I own, I have to be able to work to care for patients.

DEMBOSKY: She grabbed the papers, an extra pair of scrubs and a nightgown and raced back to the ICU. Over the next two hours, smoke filled the hospital.

SMITHSON: All of a sudden the police busted⁵ in the door. And they said, everybody out. Grab what you can carry. Get your patients and go now.

DEMBOSKY: The hospital had 130 patients to evacuate¹. Patients who could walk, the staff directed to city buses. Patients who couldn't walk, like Smithson's bedridden patient, had to wait.

SMITHSON: It was a little bit stressful because we couldn't get enough ambulances there quick enough.

DEMBOSKY: Nearby Sutter Hospital was also evacuating⁶ close to 80 patients. Some ambulances had to drive through fire to get there.

SMITHSON: A lot of nurses were - and staff were putting patients in their cars and driving them to the hospital. And then other people were carrying people on blankets, you know, people that couldn't walk and putting them in cars.

DEMBOSKY: It took about 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive for her patient. But to Smithson, it felt like forever. Her team was manually pumping air into her patient's mouth with an airbag. It took five of them to push him back and forth⁷ through the parking lot several times to get away from smoke and flames. His medication was running low, and he was getting agitated⁸.

SMITHSON: The pharmacy⁹ premixes those medicines for us, but we didn't have time to prepare for extra medication for a trip like that because it just came up so fast.

DEMBOSKY: Her patient and many others made it safely to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital about four miles away. Close to 100 more were transferred to Kaiser in San Rafael about 40 miles away. Smithson followed them. Her husband was supposed to fly in from Indiana in two days. But with their new home gone, she told him to wait.

SMITHSON: And I said, well, I don't have anywhere to go right now. And we don't know what's going on. So I said I'll just go to San Rafael, and I'll help there.

DEMBOSKY: Another nurse offered Smithson a pull-out couch in a spare room. She's been sleeping there during the day and working 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every night since the fire. She says all she wants to do right now is help patients so she doesn't have to think about what she's lost. For NPR News, I'm April Dembosky in San Rafael.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MONTAGNE: And that story is part of a reporting partnership¹⁰ with NPR, KQED and Kaiser Health News which, by the way, is not affiliated¹¹ with Kaiser Permanente Medical System.

1 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

2 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

5 busted   

adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了！
• It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

6 evacuating   

撤离，疏散( evacuate的现在分词 )； 排空（胃肠），排泄（粪便）； （从危险的地方）撤出，搬出，撤空

参考例句：

• The solution is degassed by alternately freezing, evacuating and thawing. 通过交替的冻结、抽空和溶化来使溶液除气。
• Are we evacuating these potential targets? 能够在这些目标地域内进行疏散吗？

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

9 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

10 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

11 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。