After Hurricane Ian swept through the Southeast, some Florida residents are struggling to access their medicines following temporary pharmacy closures, according to NBC News.
Florida hospitals temporarily closed during the storm — with some experiencing "structural damage," and one hospital's roof ripped away by the winds — before reopening Sept. 30.
As health systems nationwide work around staffing shortages, those few days could impede care, like in the case of Roy Key, an 87-year-old U.S. Air Force Veteran.
Mr. Key takes morphine for pain from his broken hip, fractured femur and an old shoulder injury, according to NBC News. Because of the storm, the Veterans Affairs clinic near his Fort Myers, Fla., residence was closed. Mr. Key was "rocking in pain" as his wife, Sara Key, tried to access a provider who could send his prescriptions.
Of the 15 Walgreens pharmacies that closed Sept. 29 in Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach areas, 14 have reopened. CVS also closed 19 of its locations in the area Sept. 28 but reopened them a couple days later, according to NBC News.
After a VA doctor in Tennessee mailed Mr. Key's other prescription, pregabalin, Mr. Keys still encountered issues obtaining the narcotic. Eventually, Mr. Key's Florida VA clinic filled his morphine prescription Oct. 5.