Patients leave Ascension amid cyber attack, systems remain down

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - An Ascension Providence patient spoke with FOX 2 about the lack of treatment he received amid a cyberattack that hit the hospitals on Wednesday – and by midnight, he had had enough.

"I was getting to the point where I was crying because I was in so much pain," said Zackery Lopez. "They had to find a doctor to give me medication; they couldn’t find my doctor –my personal, own doctor– for 7 hours to give me pain meds."

Lopez discharged himself out of Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield, took a Lyft to Corewell Health in Royal Oak, showed them his interview with FOX 2 and got checked in. 

Lopez is a cancer survivor, but when he checked himself into the hospital on Tuesday for internal bleeding, he was worried that his cancer had returned, he said. He was in the Ascension emergency room on Wednesday, in immense pain, when the computer system went down.

"I (didn't) know what to do, I’m just sitting there – worried, scared, my wife is scared out of her mind," the Southfield resident said, adding that he does not blame the hospital's workers, as they did the best they could with the limited resources they had.

Before leaving Ascension himself, Lopez said he saw multiple other patients checking themselves out due to the chaos.

But at Corewell Health, "they pretty much got me in as fast as they could, fastest that I’ve ever seen a hospital get somebody in," he said.

Thursday morning, Lopez got to go home after his blood work came back free of cancer, he said. Despite breathing a sigh of relief, he is still perplexed by what he witnessed at Ascension.

"They were getting charts, they were getting different types of colored paper, writing," Lopez said. "It was back in the 1980s, 1950s – I wasn’t around back then, but you see it in movies. You see how they used to do it, it was honestly just like that."

Ascension Health officials are calling the incident a "cybersecurity event" after detecting "unusual activity." As of Thursday night, they are still working to restore the system.

According to the hospital group, 140 Ascension locations were affected by the cyber attack, as well as 40 senior living facilities.

"We are working around the clock with internal and external advisors to investigate, contain, and restore our systems following a thorough validation and screening process. Our investigation and restoration work will take time to complete, and we do not have a timeline for completion," according to a statement on Ascension's website. "It is expected that we will be utilizing downtime procedures for some time. Patients should bring to their appointment notes on their symptoms and a list of current medications and prescription numbers or the prescription bottles so their care team can call in medication needs to pharmacies."

Ascension is the largest chain of Catholic hospitals in the country.

"Due to downtime procedures, several hospitals are currently on diversion for emergency medical services in order to ensure emergency cases are triaged immediately," according to the statement. "If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please contact 911 and your local emergency services will bring you to the nearest hospital emergency room."