What Would You Do?

Are you going to stay at work for YEARS if that's how long it takes for the electricity to come back on?

I'm a long ways from home, too, if I'm at work and I'd have to walk through some pretty sketchy neighborhoods to get home. I'm not sure if I could walk home -- it would take more than one day. It's a frightening thought.

We're looking at a day long walk. Like 15 hours going non-stop. Until we get some steam powered shuttles going to get me closer? Probably staying there, haha!

I would leave. I couldn't accomplish anything by staying.

Love to think about hypotheticals such as this!!

I would stock up on as many supplies as possible and head to my family.

Only the strong will survive, so conserving energy and resources is the best choice. That will benefit society as a whole. Wasting resources on futile cases (anyone sick enough to need hospitalization or total care) will only drain the resources for the fit who have a chance to survive.

Obviously, this attitude would kick in as soon as we were all sure this is an end to all known civilization as we know it scenario. It would be like going into disaster triage mode. I'm sure before that occurs, there will be a hopeful period where we will hope energy will be restarted within a few days, but once reality kicks in... Survival mode.

Society would have to totally restructure. Central large hospitals would no longer be viable. There would have to be a return to smaller, less sophisticated hospitals such as in olden times. People who currently can be helped by our sophisticated medical system would die. We wouldn't have IV fluids, antibiotics, CT scans, etc. We would have to return to 19th century methods, albeit with a larger knowledge base.

Infant mortality would go up, and life expectancy would go down. The horse and buggy would return. People would have to learn the old trades again. Agriculture would be affected. There would be no food storage and ice houses would return. There would be starvation, undoubtedly, and the population would decrease.

Hopefully, good people would rise up and maintain order, but most likely there would be anarchy.

If an emp is detonated worse things are coming. No longer a nurse. Survivalist mode kicks in. I grew up camping backpacking search and rescue so I can get around in the mountains no issue. It's the other crazy people we will have to deal with.

If I were able, I'd assist patients with transitioning back to their family homes. Most people can't take care of their elderly family members because they work (or have other time-consuming commitments outside of their homes). Problem solved.

I would consider taking someone frail, with no family, into my home. I would also consider helping those in my immediate area. ...but "work" in a hospital or nursing home setting wouldn't be a part of my day-to-day life.

In ICU if there is no electric power, there is no ICU. You can't get so much as a paper towel dispensed without using a powered motion sensor paper towel dispenser. The IV pumps are all electric, so is the monitoring, the vents, the lab equipment, the Xray equipment and the defibrillators. When trucks that supply pharmacy, central supplies, and food service stop running, the hospital as we know it will no longer be viable within a couple of days.

I have a suspicion that after a disaster like this, people with addictions who are out of the substances that they live for, will start seeking out the hospitals as places to find drugs. Security could become a problem, staff could be threatened, units robbed.

I read these boos all the time. Scare the you know what out of me!

I don't work in a hospital so i would head home on foot. Hopefully our neighborhood would get together and pool our skills to try to survive. All family in other states so that is out. I do wonder how long I would even want to live in a world like that though if things get really, really ugly.

I want to know where OP lives--she's worked during a blizzard, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, and volcano--and not live there! Anyway, after the freak snow/ice storm that hit the south this year, I can safely say I'll be at home. The storm that hit in January paralyzed the South for a week. When it snows down here, it's usually warm on the roads so the snow stays snowy and freezes overnight. The January storm, however, the snow melted and froze almost instantly and schools and employers were releasing people around the same time. My normal 30-minute commute took 5 1/2 hours. I called my husband as I was trying to leave the parking lot and told him to leave now (he was going to leave an hour later) because I knew I couldn't make it home for the oldest son's bus or to pickup the baby at daycare. He took 3 hours to get to the daycare to get our baby, and my oldest was able to stay with his friend in our neighborhood (the elementary school kids had to walk from the front of the neighborhood because the bus couldn't make it up the hill). I had my car phone charger and was able to talk to my husband the whole way home which helped keep me calm. People were abandoning cars and walking, kids were having to sleep at the schools because they couldn't get home, people slept in their cars, people slept in Home Depot stores. After going through that, I will stay home with my family (and a bathroom!) in any disaster.

In the case of a zombie invasion, I'm going to Washington, D.C. I figure the zombies would have starved to death-no brains to eat there!

This thread literally made me LOL.... I am with the poster that would find the nearest Daryl Dixon. HA!

I'm a realist. If I'm at work, I'm managing the panic for a bit and taking care of those under my care, although I wouldn't be able to get out any of their meds so they'd all be in pain and really whiny. Good news though - no charting! And my ascom wouldn't work nor would the call bells so there are still positives in this situation.

When reality hit that we were in the dark forevermore, I would raid the pharmacy, stuff my pockets full of some oral clindamycin and pcn, get some bandages and antiseptics, and then I'd start the long walk home. Of course realistically I'd probably be mugged on the way home and lose my precious clinda. Damn.

As for me, I'm less than 5 miles from work - about a 6 or 7 hour walk, realistically. I'd probably go home at some point. From there, I punt. Like at least one poster above, I'd probably be among the first to die off.

On the other hand - both my son and daughter-in-law are former Marines. My son's a gifted mechanic, my d-i-l is ballsier than most men and they're both trained soldiers. Their kids are both way too smart, but strong and they know how to follow direction in an emergency. If anyone can survive, they can.

So ... it's ok.

Edited Jul 29, 2014 by heron