Mission: Healing August 30, 2011

PGY 39, Day 61

FLASHBACKS: Katrina on my mind

On this date 6 years ago I was "Inside Katrina" ... and Irene, well, She reminded me - was I in the right place a the right time, or the wrong place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time - that I was in the thick of it at Tulane University Hospital on Tuesday, August 30, 2005. This was the day that started with a tapping on my door at 12:32 AM, and a this message: "The water is rising. They say there is a breach in the levee." I went back to sleep ... nothing else sensible to do ... nothing I could do about it ... I went back to sleep, safely locked in my office on a mattress on the floor ... in fact, it was the third floor of the hospital, and I knew that the flood waters could not possibly reach that high. And, as I recall, my vehicle was parked on the fourth floor of the parking garage, or was it the fifth floor? In any case, I knew my stuff and I were safe from the rising flood water, which was ... expected. Yes, this was the day that they decided to evacuate the hospital. After the flood ... after the elevators failed ... after the flood waters started to enter the hospital on the first floor. The stupidity is just outrageous ... still disturbing to think about it. I was there, because I was on call for Critical Care ... for the patients. But, the hospital should have been evacuated before the storm and shut down for the storm. So, I had become a participant in this exercise in stupidity, because of my obligation to and for the patients. In other words, the failure to evacuate and close the hospital before the storm, a storm we had watched and expected for days put hundreds, if not thousands of patients and providers at risk ... not to mention the hundreds of people ... SOM faculty and families (including pets) who put themselves at risk by attempting to ride the storm out at the medical center. So, all in all, the pre storm planning was just plain stupid, and because of this, I was there at Tulane University Hospital on August 30, 2005, when the flood waters rolled in from the broken levees around the Lake. The contrast with Irene is striking ... but, is this just another warning?
To be continued ... MORE REFLECTIONS on KATRINA AND IRENE ...
Dr. Mike