Valley Medical Center in San Jose was closed to incoming ambulances for just under two hours Friday morning because of a hazmat situation at the hospital.
A male patient who had been exposed to "some sort of chemical substance" came in to the hospital's emergency room around 4:45 a.m. Friday morning, according to Valley Med spokesperson Joy Alexiou.
Alexiou said Valley Med's ER was temporarily closed to patient traffic starting around 8 a.m. while they tried to identify the substance.
Just after 9:45 a.m., fire crews said there was no evidence of a hazardous substance in the emergency room and normal hospital operations resumed, even though they couldn't determine just what the substance was, Alexiou said.
Ambulance traffic was being diverted to other facilities while the hospital worked to determine the nature of the substance, Alexiou said.
The patient was decontaminated, isolated and is in fair condition, according to Alexiou. She didn't disclose the man's identity.
The hospital was not being evacuated and the situation had no effect on operations or other patients, Alexiou said. She added that no one else in the building was contaminated.
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Alexiou said the patient had called 911 and police, fire, and an ambulance responded. She said the patient should have been decontaminated before entering the ER.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
