The Daytona Beach plant that makes nearly a quarter of the IV fluids used in the United States is intact in the wake of Hurricane Milton’s tear across Florida, according to a company spokeswoman.
The site, operated by B Braun Medical, gained prominence this week as a backup source for IV solutions because Hurricane Helene had flooded a major producer of the fluids in North Carolina and left hospitals from California to Virginia with diminishing supplies.
Company workers and officials from the federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response took pre-emptive measures before Milton arrived, loading trucks full of finished IV medical products to ship them out of the storm’s reach through the night Tuesday.
Allison Longenhagen, a company spokeswoman, said on Thursday that the manufacturing and distribution site at Daytona Beach was intact, and would reopen on Friday. She said a more complete update would be issued later Thursday.
The threat to B Braun’s Florida plant worried officials, hospitals and people who rely on the fluids for nutrition, at-home dialysis and surgery because of the damage Hurricane Helene had done to a plant in Marion, N.C., run by Baxter, the nation’s leading maker of the products.
Baxter ordinarily produces about 60 percent of the U.S. supply of IV products, or an estimated 1.5 million of the bags that are used each day, according to the American Hospital Association.
Hospitals have begun canceling surgical procedures and rationing bags of the fluids while Baxter works to clean and restore its plant in Marion, which was extensively flooded.
Early this week, Baxter provided hospital customers with just 40 percent of their usual deliveries of saline, dextrose and sterile water supplies. Baxter said Wednesday that it would increase deliveries to 60 percent.
Other emergency measures were being taken to shore up gaps in the supply chain.
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized temporary imports of Baxter fluids from Canada, Ireland, Britain and two plants in China. The company has not yet said when the imports would arrive, but said Thursday that trucks were shipping undamaged inventory from the North Carolina site.
The patients most on edge about shortages are those who rely on a highly concentrated dextrose solution for nutrition. . Hospitals are conserving the fluids by giving some patients Pedialyte or Gatorade to drink, but those who rely on tube feeding for survival are less able to cut back.
Beth Gore, chief executive of the Oley Foundation, which advocates for patients on long-term IV nutrition, said she had been hearing from dozens of families across the country who said they were told the supply for their children would be reduced or cut off.
”We are all extremely concerned about the disproportionate harm that’s going to potentially happen to the home-care patients,” she said.
