In the looting that followed Hurricane Katrina, a pack of doctors raided a pharmacy in the French Quarter and stole much needed medications. Meanwhile, as floodwaters rose, trapping patients in New Orleans hospitals, surgeons pumped mechanical ventilators by hand to keep the sick alive.
Now, with thousands of Louisiana residents making their way to emergency relief centers in Texas and other states, health professionals must piece together treatment histories for the families who fled their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs.
The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has left dire medical care up to a disparate and quick thinking network of doctors, nurses and emergency workers. Faced with the one of worst national disasters in the country's history, anyone with even a bit of medical experience has been compelled to treat the sick and needy any way they can. The United States Health and Human Services is calling for further medical help, posting on its Web site that volunteers can expect 12-hour shifts and "austere" conditions.
Dr. Maximo Brito, an infectious disease expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he plans to return to the area soon. Brito was visiting New Orleans for a conference when the levees could no longer contain the rising waters of Lake Pontchartrain, leaving him and the few remaining guests stranded at the Ritz Carlton near the French Quarter.
There was no sense of panic at first, but after several days, the problems became unavoidable. Brito and a handful of doctors set up a rudimentary triage center at a cafe to treat infections in those who had been trudging through murky flood waters.
More concerning were the hotel guests and workers who had run out of medications. Many suffered from hypertension or diabetes, which can cause serious complications when left untreated. "It was out of control," he said.
So, with the help of the police, Brito and a few others broke into the Walgreens and grabbed every pill they could from the shelves.
Health
"We ransacked it," he said. "There was nothing else we could do."
Near-Term Agenda: A Workable Health System
The situation appears to be improving as the thousands who evacuated the flooded coast finally make it to safe shelter. Cities from Houston to San Francisco have set up temporary shelters and are providing medical care to those in need.
At the Cajun Dome in Lafayette, Louisiana, the Red Cross has six exam rooms, a team of doctors and a pharmacy the size of a small Wal-Mart, which dispenses free medications. Cathryn Wright, a volunteer nurse, said that the shelter now houses over 6,000 evacuees, nearly double from just a few days ago.
They have all the support they need for now, she said. But there are plenty of other challenges, mostly from trying to figure who gets the right medications.
"Can you guess how many times we heard from the patient: 'I take a yellow pill for my blood pressure and I am out?'" reports Wright on a special blog devoted to nursing issues.
Health officials say their biggest concern for those lucky to be in a shelter are diseases that are easily prevented by vaccines, such as measles and rubella, which might be spread as people are jammed into already crowded facilities. With upwards of 50,000 being displaced from their home, another daunting task is getting people back into a functioning medical system.
For the time being, the Red Cross and other organizations are providing medications at relief shelters, while insurers like Blue Cross and Blue Shield are allowing their members to refill prescriptions wherever they can.
Unknown Dangers
While most have safely evacuated New Orleans, the flood has washed the city with a potentially volatile mix of bacteria and chemicals from the hundreds of refineries that dot the damaged Louisiana coast. "The water smelled terrible," said Brito.
No one knows how toxic this mixture may turn out to be, but doctors are reporting cases of cellulitis and other infections in people who waded through the flooded streets.
Anything that comes into contact with the water, whether it's food or medications, may be contaminated, officials warn. At the moment, the Centers for Disease Control says there is no need to vaccinate against cholera and typhoid because these diseases are extremely rare in the United States.
But for emergency workers and others who are exposed to the receding flood water, the agency recommends vaccines for tetanus and hepatitis B. Despite the risk, Brito said he plans to return to New Orleans to protect against any outbreak of disease. He expects to see continued health problems when he returns.
"We will have to give out a lot of antibiotics," he said.
