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Suspicious Substance Investigation Briefly Shuts Part Of San Jose Valley Medical Center

SAN JOSE (KCBS) - A San Jose Hazmat team responded to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center emergency room Friday morning after a patient was brought in with an unknown substance on hi clothing.

By 10 a.m., the hospital had fully reopened. As a precaution, the medical portion of the emergency room was blocked off behind red tape as crews isolated the man involved and investigated.

Suspicious Substance Investigation Briefly Shuts Part Of San Jose Valley Medical Center

After the investigation, the Hazmat team found no trace of a dangerous substance in the ER, and called the "all clear."

"It didn't get in the atmosphere, it didn't get on the bed linen, it didn't get on other people so it's not an issue any longer and were open again for patients," hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said.

Alexio said that, normally, a patient exposed to a hazardous material is decontaminated before being taken into the ER.

"There's protocols in place for doing decontamination at the scene or prior coming to the emergency department, so that should have happened by a different couple of agencies," she said.

The name of the chemical has not been released and the man was reported to be in fair condition.

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