Hospital able to meet flu shot needs

Barbara Diamond

They began lining up at 4 a.m. Saturday outside the South Coast

Medical Center lobby to make sure they got a flu shot.

“There were close to 50 people waiting when we started giving the

shots at a little after 6 a.m.,” said Kate Tschuden, center

foundation health resource coordinator. “They probably had the

longest wait of anyone.”

The line stretched almost to South Coast Highway by 8:30 a.m., but

by 10:30 a.m., almost the complete allotment of 1,700 shots had been

used. No one was turned away.

“This is probably the largest crowd I have seen for the shots,”

said Debbie Mulligan, infection control nurse at the center for six

years.

Mulligan stuck around until 1 p.m., an hour after the clinic was

supposed to shut down, to accommodate late-comers. The remaining

shots were given on Monday to hospital auxiliary members and doctors’

referrals.

Clinic guidelines gave preference to the eldest, the youngest and

most at risk. The shots were free.

Louise Buckley and Shirley Wilent were among the seniors who

usually get their shots at the Laguna Beach Senior Center clinic,

which was canceled this year due to a shortage of vaccine.

Hospital officials advised the center of Saturday’s clinic and

newspapers publicized the time and date, as well as information about

other sites.

“We read about it in the paper,” long-time Laguna resident Susan

Nogawa said, lined up with her husband Raymond.

The clinic at the center was organized quickly when the Orange

County Health Department released the vaccine to hospitals that had

been notified in mid-October that no shots were available.

“We had 10 days notice, so we went to plan B,” said Kate Tschuden,

“County health department scouts complimented us on our

organization.”

Nine Saddleback Hospital student nurses administered the vaccine

under Mulligan’s supervision, starting shortly after 6 a.m.

“Except for the people who arrived way early, the wait averaged

about an hour,” Tschuden said.

Even when volunteers plucked some of the most elderly, youngest or

incapacitated out of the line, no one grumbled or whined. Jacque and

artist Bob Schaar and Art Fong arrived at the hospital at 7:15 a.m.

“We only waited about an hour,” Bob Schaar said. “It wasn’t that

bad. They had a lot of people working.”

For some, the wait began at the highway as drivers in north- and

south-bound vehicles turned into the hospital driveway and jockeyed

for parking spaces.

“I got here at 7 a.m., but it took until 7:30 a.m. to park,” said

volunteer Thelma Macklin.

Rik Lawrence arrived at the stop light at about 7:30 a.m., took a

look at the line-up of cars, copped a U-turn and headed back home.

“Then I said, this is dumb and turned around and came back,”

Lawrence said.

It was meant to be, Lawrence said”We had absolutely no complaints,

just praise,” Tschuden said. “We were so pleased.”