Heroic efforts made at Charity hospital to save patients
07:14 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Associated Press
As floodwaters rose around Charity Hospital, nurses hand-pumped ventilators for patients who couldn't breathe. Helicopters landed on the garage to airlift critically ill babies. Doctors canoed supplies to and from Charity and three nearby hospitals.
Maybe I need to stop watching the news coverage.... especially FOX NEWS. This is jsut so terrible. Folks are walking miles out of the projects in New Orleans and flocking to the Superdome. They are saying people are dying and no one can get in to help.
Please give to the RED CROSS and local agencies so they can help everyone, rich and poor, in the area.
Reports from Houston (where I am) say they will try to bus evacuees to Houston Astrodome and Houston Texas Dome (I don't know what it's called..).. Folks here are ready and willing to help. Not that it helps the people in LA.
Brita - Please message me - let me bring you a meal or two or a few things you need. I can help you get in touch with people who can get you working quickly
My heart and my prayers go out to all who have been devastated by this disaster. I think that it is past time to place any blame on anyone--Mother Nature doesn't count--and do all we can whether it is volunteering or money or just prayers.
Brita - Please message me - let me bring you a meal or two or a few things you need. I can help you get in touch with people who can get you working quickly
And I may have a place for you to stay as well...
Posts like these give me warm fuzzy feelings. It is nice to be able to reach out and help on this board. :icon_hug: I hope you guys get in touch with each other...
I'm not going to dig deep into what should have happened and what didn't happen but all I know is this. Hospitals in a very vulnerable area to hurricanes and flooding should have a plan. It didn't matter if it was a Cat 5, 4, or even 3. NOLA, MS, and AL were all in the cone for a major hurricane on Friday. That was 3 days warning. When your hospital is surrounded by water, you should have a plan. Cape Canaveral Hospital in Florida is surrounded by water as well. It was evacuated for Frances and Jeanne (Cat 2 and 3 storms, respectively). So it IS possible to move patients. It is an enormous undertaking, but with 2-3 days notice it possibly could have happened. They didn't need to evacuate to a far away city, just to some place at or above sea level!
My heart breaks for everyone affected by this storm. Especially all the emergency workers and public servants who are risking their lives every minute, and at the same time they have lost everything.
Agree with the above, also the sheer numbers who decided to stay in New Orleans when they did order mandatory evacuation is astounding. It seems there is massive loss of live and deteriorating health conditions which may increase those numbers also. I would hope that New Orleans will be rebuilt somewhere else that is safer,but who knows in this wild world anymore. It seems a massive engineering feat will be needed.
I am going insane watching all this coverage on TV and not being able to help. My donation is sent in, I need to contact the red cross about future volunteering. Listening to an ICU nurse at Charity Hospital in NOLA talk on CNN almost brought me to tears. What horrible conditions they are working in and how frustrated they are. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected...residents, workers, patients, everyone.
I am a soon to be LPN and I have been sitting here reading all these posts. I am warmed from the top of my head to the tip of my toes by the out pouring of compassion from all you wonderful nurses. It is nurses like you that made me want to be a nurse.
It is difficult to understand why some would not have wanted to leave their home. I am sure they thought "well we have survived hurricanes before and we will survive this one". I have never been through a hurricane, but I have survived a flood on a major scale. I live in Grand Forks North Dakota and we were flooded in 1997. The winter was hard and long, we recieved so much snow, then it warmed up the snow started to melt, then bam out of nowhere we were hit with an ice storm. The town spent well over a week preparing, sand bagging and praying. They knew the water was going to rise above the banks, but know one new it would get as bad as it did.Our levees broke and houses were flooded up to the roofs. The only reason I mention this is because, I too was one of those who could not believe that it would get so bad. The whole town was evacuated. My husband and I did not leave untill the water was at our door step. I am sure you are thinking how stupid was that! Well your right it was stupid, but no one wants to lose what they have worked long and hard to achieve. It is also hard to believe it is actually happening. Anyways, our compassion is what these people need now and too know that we as americans are here for them and want to help. Lets not question why they did not leave, but pray for all who are suffering and ask Gods mercy to be with them.
Posts like these give me warm fuzzy feelings. It is nice to be able to reach out and help on this board. :icon_hug: I hope you guys get in touch with each other...
EXACTLY what she said. What an amazing bunch of people we have here.
I feel that the ANA should step in and recruit volunteers to help these nurses. Isn't that what we should be doing for our own? I would leave in a heart beat if I knew I could be of use. I have an Illinois license but in this type of emergency I think that license rules from other states should be waived. I am calling the red cross in the AM to see if they could use my help. ANA should step to the plate!!! I feel awful knowing these nurse are helpless to care for their patients, can't see their families or leave the hospitals because of the conditions outside and not having enough staff in the hospital to relieve them. Let me know if you have any info that we can use to go help them. thanks
QUOTE=HappyNurse2005]Heroic efforts made at Charity hospital to save patients
07:14 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Associated Press
As floodwaters rose around Charity Hospital, nurses hand-pumped ventilators for patients who couldn't breathe. Helicopters landed on the garage to airlift critically ill babies. Doctors canoed supplies to and from Charity and three nearby hospitals.
Please, let us all show compassion as both humans and as nurses! Of course mistakes were made, but that was then. Those mistakes can be dealt with later, let's deal with the here and now, and of course the future. Let's help in any way possible, helping both those in need and of course our "own" those nurses are tired, hungry, more over worked than any of us in the field can imagine! They need our help, our compassion, our understanding. The criticism is simply NOT helpful at this point in time.
Well, I don't think anyone has resources to cope with a category 5 hurricaine sitting in a city like New Orleans. These decisions they made will have long lasting consequences. Flat out, they should have evacuated and left only a volunteer skeleton crew to man incoming injuries.
Of course the flooding was to be expected !!!!! Since when do backup generators work when flooded???
sunnyjohn
2,450 Posts
Maybe I need to stop watching the news coverage.... especially FOX NEWS. This is jsut so terrible. Folks are walking miles out of the projects in New Orleans and flocking to the Superdome. They are saying people are dying and no one can get in to help.
Please give to the RED CROSS and local agencies so they can help everyone, rich and poor, in the area.
Above all PRAY.