The State of Alaska has sent a notification to medical providers that certain IV bags and are going to be in short supply for an unknown period of time, since 60% of the ones used in the United States are made by a factory that was badly disabled by Hurricane Helene.
The message came from Dr. Michael Levy, the State of Alaska’s Emergency Medical Services director. He said that the Baxter International North Cove plant in Marion, North Carolina experienced severe flooding, and that the surrounding area is also badly damaged, including a collapsed bridge on US 221 that leads into the plant. Baxter is the largest IV solutions plant in the United States, producing 1.5 million bags of IV solution a day. The plant is a 1.4 million-square-foot facility employing 2,500 people.
Levy advised medical providers to review their inventory of IV crystalloid and other IV solutions and “consider your agency’s ability to get through a time of reduced supply, should that occur based upon your historic consumption. and the further advised them to consider placing an order earlier than they might think necessary or come up with contingency plans to reduce the use of IV solution bags.
Among the types of medical products Baxter provides are for:
- Renal care: Products for acute and chronic dialysis, including peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis
- IV solutions: Sterile intravenous (IV) solutions and sets for administering IV fluids and drugs
- Infusion systems: Infusion systems and devices
- Parenteral nutrition: Parenteral nutrition therapies and clinical nutrition products like lipids, amino acids, and vitamins
- Anesthetics: Inhaled anesthetics
- Surgical equipment: Advanced surgical equipment, surgical hemostat and sealant products, and bio surgery products
- Respiratory health: Respiratory health devices
Levy said details are not yet available as to when the problem will be resolved.
The Baxter plant was not only locally flooded but in spite of moving inventory off the floor to the extent possible, the plant was inundated by rushing water after a breach in a nearby dam during Helene. Company employees are also impacted at their homes, many of which were made uninhabitable. Company officials are lining up backup plants for IV products, but in the meantime dialysis and other lifesaving uses of IV bags has now become a nationwide medical crisis as a result of Hurricane Helene.
Alaska and Hawaii are at the end of the supply chain for IV bags.
How strange. A mega business that was flush with cash, vacc!nes and ventilators during the pandemic is now short on supplies for those in actual crisis?
Those who need affordable insulin still struggle, but they can get a free chemical experiment injected into them free of charge…
It is almost as if there is no diabolical agenda that can benefit from this current crisis.
Makes one think about the true motivations of medical establishment.
Anyone ever watch Patch Adams?
Simple things. Simple things in preparedness. Keep an extra supply of toilet paper. Keep enough essential items for at least a couple of weeks (a month is better). Has our Emergency Services system never heard of ‘Emergency?’ No, in our ‘just in time’ delivery system, there is no such thing as preparedness. If the Longshoremen strike happened in Tacoma for a week we would all be back to Sears catalogues. Oops, try using your smart phone.