Main Hospital In New Orleans Is A Tent

Rose Lee was standing outside the New Orleans Charity Hospital, mouth agape, eyes wide with astonishment. She had recently returned to her native city from Texas and had come to see an emergency doctor about the "head-to-toe" mess of health problems she had suffered since losing everything she owned to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.

Mrs Lee, 48, knew that what was formerly the city's flagship hospital had been badly damaged in the disaster that engulfed the coast last August, and was now operating as a makeshift emergency room. She was clearly not expecting the 30-bed army tent in front of her.

"They put people in there?" she said, horrified. "Are we living in Iraq? It is like a war zone."

Eight months ago, when the Charity Hospital set up a military tent in a convention-centre car park, medical staff thought it would be for four weeks at most. Dr Peter DeBlieux, the head of the emergency room, summed up their views: "It's not OK. This is the United States of America. This is not a Third World country." John Trueil, 55, a staff nurse at the hospital, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I never dreamed that I would be working in conditions like these. This is what we have and we are making the best of it."

Emergency care is still being provided from what the staff call "the M*A*S*H tent", which they have relocated to an abandoned department store.

Of the 16 hospitals that once provided acute care in New Orleans, only nine have reopened since Hurricane Katrina. Earlier this month, two New Orleans doctors published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that said: "Health care here remains unacceptably primitive."

Charity was New Orleans' largest hospital before the hurricane, with more than 150,000 emergency-room visits and 300,000 clinic visits a year. It has served the city's residents since 1736. Now, it operates at a third of its former volume, and sends patients with serious injuries and ailments to hospitals elsewhere in the state.

From the beginning, the American government's haphazard response to Hurricane Katrina was criticised as being unworthy of the world's only superpower. After the hurricane hit, it emerged that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) lacked helicopters.

The deployment of National Guard units was delayed because of red tape, and officials blocked the initial efforts of the Red Cross to aid victims. Twenty-five thousand people were stranded for days inside the Superdome sports stadium; tempers rose and a spate of violent crimes was reported.

President George W Bush was criticised because he did not visit the stricken region until four days after the hurricane. When he did appear, he offered Michael D Brown, the director of FEMA, a pat on the back and said the words that became a catchphrase in America: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." But, 10 days later, with people still waiting to be rescued from their homes, Mr Brown resigned.

The tourist district has reopened and more than three-quarters of the city's 1.3 million residents have returned. Yesterday they were voting for their mayor in the first municipal election since Hurricane Katrina. Ray Nagin, the incumbent, could be thrown out by voters angry at his handling of the crisis. Just a few miles from the perfectly preserved French Quarter, parts of the city resemble a disaster zone. Corpses were still being retrieved from the Ninth Ward district in recent weeks. The T-shirt slogans here are less ambiguous: "F*** FEMA" or "FEMA: The New Four-Letter Word."

Many homes remain derelict, Grassy areas are heaped with rusting cars. In front of a ruined Baptist church, a large, dented cross dangles on its electric wires.

Further along the Gulf Coast, in some small towns, residents were still living in tents up to a fortnight ago. FEMA and local police forces have moved as many people as they could find into trailers.

"It has been difficult, because of the numbers of people involved, but we are doing everything possible to assist disaster victims," said a spokesman for FEMA. "We have provided trailers for 38,000 households in Mississippi alone."

Back at Charity Hospital, Mrs Lee left without being seen, after being told that she had to provide proof of her residency in New Orleans if she didn't want to be billed for the treatment costs. Mrs Lee, who lost everything in the hurricane, was unable to do so.

"I don't know what to think or do. I feel like an illegal immigrant in my own country," she said.

"The tourist district has reopened and more than three-quarters of the city's 1.3 million residents have returned. "

I heard on the radio today, here in Mobile, that the population was under half what it was pre-Katrina.(?)

is that New Orlans population or Mobile's

Baton Rouge is the largest city in the state now.

John Trueil, 55, a staff nurse at the hospital, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I never dreamed that I would be working in conditions like these."

So move.

more than three-quarters of the city's 1.3 million residents have returned.

Other than padding the voting machines with this inflated number, I believe General Honore would call this "B.S."

"Mrs Lee left without being seen, after being told that she had to provide proof of her residency in New Orleans if she didn't want to be billed for the treatment costs."

Taxpayer funded healthcare and she is bitcin about the surroundings. Go back to your submarine you call a home ya witch! ;-)

Tell Gov. Blameo to stop wasting all that money on her office and build a hospital.

Take a real close look at this picture the tent is actually inside a building.

and this is no M*A*S*H* era tent either but the top of the line battlefield hospital with all the trimmings that only the U S government can afford.

Damn these lying media pigs.

9 posted on 04/22/2006 5:51:16 PM PDT by usmcobra (Those that are incited to violence by the sight of OUR flag are the enemies of this nation.)

Emergency care is still being provided from what the staff call "the M*A*S*H tent", which they have relocated to an abandoned department store.

M*A*S*H* was good enough for our people in Korea and Viet Nam but now it isn't good enough for the people in New Orleans???????? Give me a f***ing break..........

"Are we living in Iraq? It is like a war zone."

"I didn't see any of those naked pyramids of men wearing pillowcases on their head though, so I guess this isn't Iraq!"

Seriously, people let on more than they know about how poorly they think of the military when they complain about something being at military standards. A state of the art hospital tent (located INDOORS) that would be the best medical facility if located many places in the world, and this woman gets to use its services gratis, and she still does nothing but b*tch about it. How very predictable.

"is that New Orlans population or Mobile's"

New Orleans.

Mobile county's population has increased by 60,000 since Katrina. It was only 472,000 before Katrina. Governor Bob Riley (R), would not accept any refugees without a background check. The state as a whole took 23,000 from NO.

Do these people that you can pull a hospital instantly out of your butt?

13 posted on 04/22/2006 6:18:43 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul (CODE PINK has blood on their hands and they can never, never wash it off)

I heard on the radio today, here in Mobile, that the population was under half what it was pre-Katrina.(?)

I think the 75% return rate is purest propaganda. I've heard several times that they were at around TEN percent of previous population.

Nagin has billboards here in Houston.

14 posted on 04/22/2006 6:34:50 PM PDT by MississippiMan (Behold now behemoth...he moves his tail like a cedar. Job 40:17)

You can't exactly pick one up from somewhere else and drop it in place. There was no mention there of a lack of medications, equipment, etc. to adequately take care of emergencies, or to at least stabilize people and get them somewhere else. The woman in the article left without being seen, so it must not have been much of an emergency.

After the hurricane hit, it emerged that the Federal

I think the writer begins to drift a bit from the subject of the article...

"What is it with some folks that they think everything is someone else's responsibility--never their own?"

It outrages me too.

So Mrs Lee, 48, after having been unable to locate a physician in Houston for 8 months was forced to return to a primitive existence in a shattered part of the US with no way out. I.. I.. just don't know what to say. God bless you Mrs Lee, 48, and curse you President Bush, 43.

20 posted on 04/22/2006 11:22:13 PM PDT by KarinG1 (Some of us are trying to engage in philosophical discourse. Please don't allow us to interrupt you.)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.