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Volunteer Health Care Response
to Hurricane Katrina
I deployed to New Orleans in response to the Hurricane Katrina emergency as a physician with the Maryland Defense Force because the Coast Guard had not requested the assistance of any Auxiliary personnel in its health care activities in its response to the disaster. The Maryland Board of Physicians Volunteer Corps, of which I am a member, was developed by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a component of the Maryland Professional Volunteer Corps that is comprised of members of a variety of health care professional groups. It is organized to respond to in-state emergencies, but when requested by another state's authorities, may be deployed elsewhere. The Corps was activated by Maryland’s Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. for deployment to New Orleans in response to the Hurricane Katrina emergency. We physicians, along with other volunteers that included nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, pharmacists, emergency medical technicians, and others, were sworn in as members of the Maryland Defense Force whose mission is to provide competent supplemental volunteer professional and technical support to the Maryland Military Department (MMD) and the Maryland National Guard (MDARNG). We were flown on Maryland Air National Guard C-130J aircraft to a military airfield south of New Orleans. From that location, we were bussed to the nearby abandoned Meadowcrest Hospital in Gretna, LA, where we were billeted. Members of the Arkansas National Guard provided security for the site. Gunshots had been heard in the area. Therefore, no one was placed in outside rooms, and no one was permitted to leave the compound. There was electricity, air conditioning, and running water, but the water was not potable. Some persons were able to use hospital beds, but most slept on pads on the floor or, as I did, on an army cot with a sleeping bag that we had been advised to bring. The operation, called Operation Lifeline, was conducted in a military manner. There were general and team meetings with head counts morning and evening. The Jefferson Parish President, equivalent to a county executive, had requested the Maryland health care volunteers to service 6 emergency clinics in Jefferson Parish, one of the hardest hit areas in New Orleans. My team serviced a clinic that was set up in Kenner, which was almost an hour's drive from our base site. Each team consisted of one or more volunteer physicians, nurses, a pharmacist, possibly a social worker, psychiatrist or psychologist, aides, an Emergency Medical Services ambulance and crew, and a contingent of national guardsmen. My team's ambulance and crew was from Hagerstown, MD. It had been driven to New Orleans. We traveled as a convoy en route to and from our clinic with the ambulance in the lead, followed by a van with our team and a guardsman, and finally a vehicle with additional armed National Guard personnel. Upon arriving at our clinic site, the guardsmen ascertained that the site was safe and secure, and then we entered the clinic and proceeded to care for patients. Most of the patients reported that their personal health care providers, either private or clinic, had not yet returned. One hospital was open in the general area, but it was deluged with patients in its emergency room. Everyone who came to the clinic was offered, encouraged to receive, and, if consented, administered Tetanus/Diphtheria and Hepatitis A immunizations. Many needed prescriptions refilled. Those patients were seen by a physician. A new prescription was written when needed and appropriate, and since we had a supply of many medications, our pharmacist was able to fill many of them. If we did not have the prescribed medication, the patient was directed to a pharmacy that was open, where the prescription could be filled, and where FEMA assumed the cost. Other patients presented with a variety of illnesses, injuries, or psychological problems. A few were seriously ill, as one four-year-old child whom I saw. His mother thought he had a mild cold with a cough for a few days. However, upon examining him I found him to be suffering from severe asthma and had him transported to the hospital via our EMS unit with treatment being administered en route. The photos that I am attaching were taken while I was providing medical care at our emergency clinic in New Orleans, but the child in the photo is not the child I mentioned. Our group had been prepared to remain for two weeks. However, with the approach of Hurricane Rita and the potential for additional destruction, our deployment was prematurely terminated, and we were ordered to return to Maryland. At the same time, the Parish President reported that many of their health care personnel were returning and could assume the care of their citizens. We were told that the team of volunteers from Maryland cared for over 6,000 patients since the first of our members arrived on the fourth of September. When we left the clinic for the last time, we left all of our supplies to assist the staff in restarting their clinic and the residents in recovering from this disaster. Richard C. Lavy, M.D. |
