Hospitals across the U.S. are taking steps to conserve their supplies of IV fluids after Hurricane Helene struck a critical manufacturing plant belonging to the country’s biggest supplier.
Baxter International, a medical technology company responsible for making IV fluids for most U.S. hospitals, said Sunday that it would temporarily close production at its North Cove, North Carolina-based facility because of flooding from Helene, raising concerns about a potential nationwide shortage.
IV fluids are used to deliver drugs or water with electrolytes directly into a patient’s bloodstream. They’re also critical for surgery, when a person is unable to eat or drink, to keep them hydrated. Baxter also makes specialty fluids, such as peritoneal dialysis fluid, which helps patients with kidney failure filter waste from their blood, as well as irrigation fluids, used during procedures to clean or flush wounds.
This isn’t new. Same thing happened in 2017 when Hurricane Maria hit (the one where T threw paper towels at people after.)
Saline shortage. So they could have shifted the production location for such a vital item. There was time. And yet here we are. Again.
You don’t understand. This was before the 2017Q4 call and I was two bonuses away from my second vacation yacht in Bora Bora.
If we had opened another facility, shareholder value would have been greatly diluted until it was fully online and my dream boat would have to wait until after next year’s tax season and I already had a down payment on it.