Five people in intensive care at Dandenong Hospital and Monash Medical Centre, struck down by thunderstorm asthma
FIVE people remain in intensive care at Dandenong Hospital and Monash Medical Centre, struck down by thunderstorm asthma.
South East
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THREE people remain in intensive care at Dandenong Hospital and two at the Monash Medical Centre in Clayton, after suffering asthma attacks during the Monday storms.
During a frantic 12 hours from 6pm Monday to Tuesday morning, 185 patients were taken to Monash Medical Centre, 179 patients to Dandenong Hospital and 148 patients to Casey Hospital.
More than half had thunderstorm-related asthma and respiratory problems.
RELATED: ‘Angel’ one of two dead from storm asthma
Monash Health head of allergy Dr Sarah Barnes said thunderstorm asthma was a rare event and usually only happened once every five years.
“It’s a phenomenon where by grass pollens release a number of their allergic particles in the
rain or the humidity, which are then able to get into the lungs,” Dr Barnes said.
RELATED: thunderstorm asthma: symptoms, advice, causes
“Generally speaking, most of people affected by thunderstorm asthma have a history of hay fever, but many have not necessarily experienced asthma.”
Ambulance Victoria’s executive director of emergency operations Mick Stephenson said the deluge of calls on Monday was “extraordinary and unpredictable”.
RELATED: storm hit ‘like a tornado’
“We essentially had a day’s workload within five hours,” Mr Stephenson said.
“This includes 200 cases for asthma, and we were seeing asthma in people who had not experienced breathing issues before.
“In the 15 minutes from 7pm when we would expect about 30 triple-0 calls for ambulance there were 200 calls — that’s a call every 4.5 seconds.”
Across Melbourne thousands of people were taken to hospital with breathing problems and more than 1870 calls for ambulances were made between 6pm and 11pm.
A 20-year-old woman from Hoppers Crossing, Hope Carnevali, passed away at her family home after an ambulance took more than half an hour to arrive.