Hospital Remembers Explosion

ONE YEAR AGO THIS WEEK the St. Patrick's Parish Center exploded on Oct.7.

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DIALYSIS ROOM, which took a big hit from the explosion, was redone with new chairs and equipment.

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402 BEEF was on hand on Tuesday serving burgers for the Hospital Staff and St. Mary Students as well as first responders. 402 Beef came the day of the explosion and help feed the first responders at no charge. John Kozyra visits with Cody Allen of 402 Beef at Tuesdays hospital luncheon.

It was a year ago that changed the  O'Neill community when they woke to disaster. Tuesday, October 7, was the first anniversary of the St. Patrick's Parish Center explosion. It was around 6 a.m. that a thunderous boom alerted not only the City of O'Neill, but also the sound of the blast rippled out as far as 20 miles away.

An accident involving an SUV driven by a medically compromised man went into the parish center around 5 a.m., damaging the gas service to the parish center, causing a leak of gas into the facility that built up for an hour before it found an ignition source and exploded.

The hospital, as well as the parish center, St. Mary's Grade School, and St. Mary's High School, took severe damage.

The new emergency room, as well as the dialysis center, took the most physical damage to the hospital. Inside, glass littered the floor of the Dialysis Area, as well as cracks in the ceiling and plaster in the ER. Brand new equipment, calibrated to the mark, helps diagnose patients. Now, hospital staff wonder if it will work again, or if hours of calibration and visits from technicians will be needed to get it back up and running. The hospital also suffered damage to the boilers in the 1976 addition. The 50-year-old boilers, located near the East wall, were shaken, and some of the crucial parts were damaged. The boilers are a necessity for heating and providing hot water, as well as meeting other needs throughout the entire facility.

The insurance company informed the hospital that the boilers are at the end of their lifespan. Currently, the hospital spends approximately $3,000 per month on boiler maintenance. The explosion disrupted our plans for replacing them. We have been working with Senator Deb Fischer to secure funding for the $3,000,000 needed to replace the boilers. The city of O'Neill has been working with the hospital to assist by filling out the forms on behalf of the hospital, as the application process appears more favorable when submitted on behalf of a civil entity.

"The days after the explosion were tough", said CEO John Kozyra. "On October 10, we opened the physical and occupational therapy services, as well as the sleep lab. On October 17, we reopened our Outpatient Specialty Clinics, Lab, Pharmacy, non-chemotherapy infusions, and Cardiac Rehabilitation services."

"When we were ready to open the ORs, we wanted them open soon, and I think it was Brad Dusatko, Director of Support Services, and his team, who said Hold on. We haven't done our air quality checks. Checks don't happen overnight. It usually takes about four or five days. And we said, Stop the train. Let's conduct air quality checks because you don't want someone coming in for surgery if the air quality is not perfect, as it could lead to surgical site infections and other issues. And so,  we really prioritized safety, through the whole process, because just there's no cutting corners because people's lives are in your hands when they're in health care, and we don't wanna have anything like that," said Kozyra

"In the days after the explosion, another thing we really tried to adopt was a mantra of 'we want to come back stronger.' During the mass to recognize the anniversary of the event on Tuesday, October 7, Father Starman said their mantra was 'build back better,' and I said, 'Well, we're kind of the same thing.' 

Father Starman and I had many conversations early on; I remember sitting with him the Friday after the explosion. I went to the rectory, and we sat there for about an hour and a half. And he was really emotional because, I mean, this is his whole life, and that was really affected. For me, I leave and go home, but this is his home. This is his parish, and  I remember telling him, Father, I can fix the buildings, but I can't restore people's sense of optimism and hope. I hope I was like, 'That's your gig.' And we kinda laughed. And so we both tried to figure out how to restore a sense of hopefulness," said Kozyra. "And, I think we achieved that, you know, in how we approach things, you know, between, sort of ceremonial reopening services in the hospital, doing the Thanksgiving service we did. We were partners on the Christmas parade float.

"I had nurses coming to me in tears, saying, 'We've always been the strong organization that never closes its doors, and now we're the broken one.' We can't provide healing to our community, and that was a particularly emotional experience for the staff who had been here a long time. That sense of despair that I can't do the healing work that I know I'm supposed to do for our community. And so I want to make a point here about what John said. One of the most unique things I think we encountered at the end of the night was probably 10 p.m. on October 7, and we realized the hospital always runs 24/7. And all of a sudden, we're walking out empty.

When I was coming up here to post the signs on the doors, I think Nathan rewrote for me probably five to 10 times because I couldn't get it right. The hardest thing for me was knowing that there would be nobody here to answer the phone for the community if they needed something, even a question, or if we couldn't handle an emergency. We couldn't deliver a baby, and for me, that was the hardest thing to figure out: how to communicate, how somebody could get help, because we weren't here like we usually are. And so I agree that it was so hard to post those and then drive away. Yeah. It's like, sorry. We can't do what we always do.

After the initial shock had passed, one of the things the hospital did was pull its staff together. We held all-staff meetings because people were naturally hungry for information. All of our employees were at home, not working, for the first week. I remember asking Brad Dusatko, ' alright. The building's closed. What can we do? 'Let's get some people in, and we'll do some painting. And so we painted every patient room in the hospital.

So we get some crews in. They did painting. Not all of them loved that, and a few of them got a bit loopy on paint fumes. But it's one of those things that we did, and that was part of the journey.

The hospital resumed inpatient services and the emergency department on Oct.29. On October 31, we had Surgery and Labor/Delivery. In November, we reopened MRI services. January saw the return of Dialysis, and on February 12, the ER returned to its permanent space."

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