‘Thunderstorm asthma’ epidemic: Pharmacy@Knox staff run off feet

KNOX medical centres were run off their feet amid the unpredecented “thunderstorm asthma” epidemic last night.

A Knox pharmacy had more than 200 people seek help for respiratory problems last night.

KNOX medical centres were run off their feet amid the unpredecented “thunderstorm asthma” epidemic last night.

The Pharmacy@Knox 24-hour pharmacy had more than 200 people come in overnight with respiratory issues.

‘State disaster’ as ‘rarely seen phenomenon’ thunderstorm asthma strikes in Melbourne

Pharmacist Lisa Chhour said from 10pm “tens of people at a time” were seeking help, and one man’s asthma was so bad paramedics were called to take him to hospital.

“They all had shortness of breath, wheezing and trouble breathing,” Ms Chhour said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, it was like a scary movie.”

She said the pharmacy sold out of spacers and she had to get more Ventolin stock from storage.

The pharmacy is the only one open 24 hours in the eastern suburbs.

She said most people had found them by Googling, and one man had travelled from Prahran to get help.

Ms Chhour said they helped everyone who came in, and also gave them advice on how to use Ventolin properly.

Meanwhile, in the 12 hours from midnight, 88 people went to the Angliss Hospital’s emergency department.

Eastern Health acute health acting executive director Matt Sharp said the hospital’s average number of daily admissions was about 115.

He said there was a “significant increase” in respiratory-related presentations to the Angliss, Box Hill and Maroondah hospitals after the thunderstorm.

Knox Leader’s Facebook page was inundated with people who were affected, including Lisa Kelly, who said she took herself to hospital at 1am.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw all the people with the same problem,” she said.

“It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before; my chest felt like it was going to cave in.”

State health commander Paul Holman said in 40 years in the job, he had never seen a response like this, calling it a “state disaster” .

“It’s a phenomenon we’ve only seen rarely before,” Mr Holman said.

“Within an hour (of the storm hitting) we’d received 160 calls, and had run out of resources.”

“We’ve called on our colleagues at MFB, asking their Emergency Medical Response team to operate outside their normal parameters. And we’ve also called on Victoria Police to assist us.”

Ambulance Victoria regional services general manager Mick Stephenson said paramedics attended to more patients in five hours yesterday than they usually assist in a whole day.

Mr Stephenson said more than 1870 calls for ambulances were made between 6pm and 11pm last night, with at least 600 calling with respiratory symptoms.

— with staff writers