10,000 Patients and Staff Members Await Evacuation From Barely Functional Hospitals

NY Times ^ | September 1, 2005 | REED ABELSON and ALAN FEUER

[neverdem]

It is daunting what the 600 patients and staff members trapped by a moat of filthy water inside Charity Hospital in New Orleans have been doing without.

The lights are down, which means that medication must be rushed through sodden hallways by flashlight after dark. The ventilators are down, which meant that, for a while, nurses had to pump the airbags of pulmonary cases by hand.

There are few phones. No x-ray machines. No CAT scans. No computers. No air-conditioners.

The lab is down, which means that if a patient has an infection, physicians must determine how serious it is by using their sense of smell.

"In a lot of ways, we're functioning as if we were in a developing country at this point," said Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke, a physician at the hospital, reached yesterday on one of its few working land lines."We're doing the best we can, but it's a new experience."

With communication and transportation systems on the Gulf Coast severely damaged, there was no clear way to get the global view of the health care crisis in the region. Many hospitals, particularly in New Orleans, were being evacuated, including Charity and Tulane University Hospital and Clinic. While some patients were being sent to hospitals elsewhere in Louisiana, some of the most seriously ill patients have been sent by helicopter to hospitals in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

One New Orleans hospital, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, had to airlift 12 of the 13 premature babies in its neonatal intensive care unit.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt held a conference call with hospitals across the country yesterday asking for help in caring for...

[neverdem]

Prayer ping

[dts32041]

Well gee whiz, the government is going to take care of you they just cut a check.

Note to self purchase a new ruck, canoe, and restock the 2k supplies

[the Deejay]

Note to self purchase a new ruck, canoe, and restock the 2k supplies.

Don't forget plenty of guns and ammo, you may need to shoot your way through.

[dts32041]

That has already been taken care of.

[verity]

Mother Nature is such a merciless bi*ch.

[the Deejay]

hehehe....good on ya.

[dts32041]

Though I have been thinking about a new long gun maybe a scout rifle and a new .45 ACP hand gun ( my other two are feeling lonely).

[the Deejay]

I don't know much about guns,
but some of those A-K's may
do just fine.

They seem to be keeping
even Homeland Security
away. (What do they use,
spitballs?)

[syriacus]

Prayer ping

Good idea, neverdem. Thanks for the reminder.

[No Longer Free State]

And if they abandoned search and rescue efforts for people trapped on rooftops to evacuate those in the relative safety of that hospital, many more would either die or need medical treatment.