First Person: Nurse Caring for Refugees Shares Experience
Baytown, Texas — Peg Shepherd, a registered nurse who answers questions on WebMD’s Multiple Sclerosis message board, has been volunteering at a shelter in Baytown, Texas, that’s now caring for refugees from Hurricane Katrina. She filed this report.
Spent hours yesterday again at the shelter here in Baytown. I know you are all seeing the horror stories from New Orleans and other points on the Gulf coast. I'm hearing them from survivors as well. A lot of what I've been doing has been just sitting and listening to people tell their stories. I don't know if it helps, but it's something I'm good at and people seem to need to talk.
The shelter is a surprisingly calm place. It is a local community center and currently has about 250 people in it. One large room is set up for meals; the other is set up with wall-to-wall cots. When you enter the building, the noise level is the first thing that hits you. It is not a place designed for that size crowd on a sustained basis. It's not that people are shouting or making undue noise. It is just the sound of 250 refugees plus dozens of volunteers crowded together trying to live life. Many of the refugees spend some time outside, but with the temperature and humidity both in the mid-to upper-90s, no one stays outside for long. Plus, yesterday we had several thunderstorms and just plain rain. Soggy and soggier.
People I encountered yesterday included: a young woman, 20, who is 6 months pregnant, having severe headaches, elevated blood pressure, separated from both her family of origin and her boyfriend. We ended up sending her to the local ER for evaluation. Did the same with a young boy, 8-years-old, who had slammed his thumb in a car door while trying to help his dad move some of their belongings into the shelter. He was trying so hard to "be brave," but the tears were leaking through and it seemed as though his injury might be the thing that tipped him over the edge on top of all the other things he has endured -- and has to continue to endure.
People are beginning to show up with skin rashes, likely from their time in polluted water. People in many cases have now been without their routine medications for days. Those medications include everything from antipsychotics to antibiotics to drugs for cancer, heart disease, depression, anxiety, etc.
Stories of Rescues...
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First Person: Nurse Caring for Refugees Shares Experience [FOX News]
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