Physician Report from the Astrodome
Amy is an MD who volunteered at the Houston Astrodome…
I don’t even know how to explain how bad it is down here for those of you who aren’t here. It’s just unreal that so many people are here in Houston, and it seemed like the Red Cross was unprepared for the onslaught of refugees, even though they knew ahead of time they were coming.
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For you orthopods- I also saw a horrible case of tibial osteomyelitis with a draining sinus- the med students were so interested in it. They’re literally seeing things they would only see in a third world country. I had to transfer him to the VA for his pending below knee amputation before he became septic, it was so bad.
Glenn Morales, 30, is a pediatric ER nurse in Baton Rouge, Louisiana…
I have volunteered at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and I found it very disturbing that all these people coming to seek refuge and a little bit of solace were met with chaos and uncertainty. It was very disturbing to me that everything seemed to be very disorganized. It seemed as though there was no communication between anybody. It was very hard to determine who to go to for answers to even simple questions. I’m still to this day not sure who was actually organizing the whole situation. I didn’t know if it was FEMA or LSU medical school running the show.
Caring for Those Who Need It Most
Felicia A. Collazo, RN, from Austin, Texas, tells us about the day she spent Saturday at the Austin Convention Center, helping those displaced by the hurricane and flooding…
Many refugees were plagued with pneumonia and wound infections from the constant exposure to the unsanitary living conditions. Many had not had their medications for their hypertension, diabetes, seizures, schizophrenia, or HIV to name a few, since the hurricane hit almost a week earlier. Many women had high risk pregnancies or had just delivered and were in need of antibiotics or IV fluids. Many had newborns, one as young as 7 days old.
Keep in mind these people survived days without electricity, clean water, or food. Keep in mind these were not the critically ill people that were taken directly to the hospital… these were the “healthy” survivors. Many were separated from their families. Many witnessed their loved ones perish before their eyes. Not one person I spoke to had on their own clothes…they were grateful for the donations. It was overwhelming and for the most part seemed unbearable but every time I looked up to take a deep breath, the outpouring of love and humanity I witnessed gave me strength to move on to the next cot, holding the next person.
From the comments to Felicia Collazo’s post:
I, too, am deeply touched by all the stories I have read here… what you are doing is so wonderful and so appreciated. I am a nurse from Michigan and am trying desperately to get down there, anywhere that I am needed, to help. I am going to a Red Cross “orientation” tomorrow morning in Ann Arbor. It’s been 7 days now since I made contact with the Red Cross… I’ve contacted FEMA… I’ve made dozens of phone calls, and still here I am sitting in Michigan, frustrated that I’m not there helping.
via CNN:
Doctors waiting to treat victims in tax-funded, state-of-the-art unit
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) — Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors while health problems rise.
Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi.
“The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. …We all got off work and deployed,” said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston “Chip” Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here,” he said. That government officials can’t straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they’re just a few miles away “is just mind-boggling,” he said.