150 Evacuated From Anaheim Hospital on Gas Leak Report

More than 150 people, including 37 patients, were evacuated Tuesday from Anaheim General Hospital when a potentially dangerous chemical was reported to be leaking inside the building.

None of the patients were placed in a life-threatening situation because of the evacuation, hospital authorities said, although five were removed by ambulance to other nearby hospitals as a precaution.

One patient was in an operating room at the time, but what was described only as a routine surgical procedure was completed without incident, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Treated for Possible Exposure

Seven people--five firefighters and two nurses--eventually were treated for possible exposure to the chemical after they complained of dizziness, headaches and some nausea, authorities said.

At 3:40 p.m. the emergency was declared over and the patients who had been evacuated were returned to their rooms, where doctors and nurses immediately began evaluating their conditions, according to nursing supervisor Ella Stockstill.

After the incident, Sam Santi, the hospital’s administrator, questioned whether there had been a chemical leak because, he said, the firefighters’ inspection failed to find any trace of the chemical supposedly involved.

But Ray Martin, an Anaheim Fire Department inspector, was confident that there had been a leak.

“If you had people hearing a hissing sound, it had to be (leaking) gas,” he said.

Highly Flammable

The chemical in question was a gaseous mixture of ethylene oxide and chlorodifluoromethane, which is piped to a pair of small ovens called autoclaves in which surgical equipment is sterilized, Martin said.

Ethylene oxide is a highly flammable and explosive chemical that can also be toxic through inhalation or skin contact, said Martin, adding that the substance is also considered an “experimental carcinogen” in that research to establish whether it is cancer-causing is under way.

Chlorodifluoromethane is used to eliminate ethylene oxide’s volatility but also can produce toxic fumes in a fire, Martin said. The mixture reportedly involved in the leak Tuesday was 12% ethylene oxide and 88% chlorodifluoromethane.

“We would have to assume there was no leak since no gas was detected by the Fire Department,” hospital administrator Santi said. “When they got in there with their measuring equipment there was no reading. The reading was zero.”

He said, however, that he had no explanation of how seven people could complain of symptoms associated with the chemical if there was no leak.

Santi said one possible explanation was that, because the area where the leak was reported was sealed off immediately and has its own ventilating system, any traces of the chemical may have dissipated by the time firefighters began their measurements.

The leak was reported about 1 p.m. by an employee who told of hearing a hissing sound coming from one of the two autoclaves, which are housed in a hospital supply area about 50 feet from the nearest patient facilities, according to Martin.

Anaheim General is a 99-bed hospital, but it is undergoing a remodeling program, and there were only 37 patients in the facility Tuesday, hospital spokeswoman Sally Chaitin said.

Ambulances on Standby

As fire units from Anaheim, Orange, Stanton, Garden Grove and Buena Park converged on the hospital at 3350 W. Ball Road, staff members used gurneys and wheelchairs to evacuate patients, including infants from the maternity ward, to the parking lot, where they were kept in what shade could be found for more than 2 1/2 hours. A fleet of ambulances was called in to stand by for any emergencies.

Firefighters equipped with oxygen masks, including Anaheim’s hazardous materials response team, were able to quickly isolate the area where the autoclaves and their supply tanks are kept, Martin said. First, the flow of gas was shut off, and then equipment was brought in to ventilate the one-story building.

Stockstill said none of the five patients who were transported to either Midwood Community Hospital in Stanton or Humana West Anaheim Hospital was in any immediate danger. Rather, she said, the decision to move them was “all precautionary.”