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.
Going on sunday am .. booked my own flight and hooked up with the red cross in baton rouge. I am staying with an angel who offered her house up and offered to provide transportation to me. She said she figured if i was willing to pay for a flight to help strangers she would be happy to help me. My family found out i was going and all my 6 siblings along with my parents and step parents are donating money to pay for my ticket to Louisianna from california . The ER crew that i work with are also donating vacation hours so i dont lose a paycheck ... such wonderful things i am truely blessed and hope that i can make a difference down there for someone. God Bless you all Pray for everyone in the disaster area and the people going to help them.
I WANT TO PRAISE YOU FOR YOU EFFORTS. I AM SURE BY THE PICTURES ON THE NEWS THAT YOU CAN BE OF USE. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE SUFFERING IT BREAKS MY HEART. I WATCH IT AND JUST WANT TO CRY. GOOD LUCK AND I WILL BE PRAYING FOR YOU. :redbeathe
Hold special prayers in your hearts for the nurses working in the destruction of Katrina.
At last note, evacuations of Charity hospital had to be stopped for a bit.
Per reports, the field hospital staff at New Orleans airport was having to "black tag" some patients - triage those that can survive long enough to be helped and those that will likely not survive the trip to safe evacuation. Our comrades in nursing are now having to the hardest things that they have ever had do, something that usually only occurs in war.
Keep them in your thoughts now and in the future as they will have to recover from this experience.
It's like a war zone down here. I've never seen anything like it. I'm in Baton Rouge and the city has doubled in size (from 500 K to 1 M) with evacuees and FEMA, Red Cross, etc. The roads are congested and everyone is out because they don't have power at home. There are fights at the gas stations and most are out of gas. The shelves at the grocery are empty of certain things - water, meat, milk. The helicopters and military planes drone overhead all day on their way in and out of N.O.
And we're the lucky ones - we have our possessions and our life. And here's what's worse, Mississippi is worse off than New Orleans. All those wonderful beachfront communities where we all vacationed down here -- Waveland, Gulfport, the buildings are match sticks and they are marking homes with bodies with a red X on the door. They aren't getting the media attention like N.O. but it's much worse there.
I have terrible survivor's guilt. I feel guilty for feeling afraid that things will never be the same here...but they really won't.
Ever since I moved here 20 years ago, we've been talking about when the big one would come and wipe out N.O. and now it's here. Just doesn't seem real, but it is.
I have to answer some posts too, about the people that stayed. Those that stayed were people that didn't have transportation to leave. Poor people that don't own cars. There was no organized program that I heard of to evacuate people for free using buses. The other thing was that if you waited too long, then you were stuck in your car in the city or on the outskirts. I heard stories of it taking 8 hours or more to get to Baton Rouge, normally a 1 hr drive. I'm quite sure they will find bodies in flooded cars. Then there were people who didn't want to leave their pets and people knowing that their homes would be looted. Plus we've gotten away with this since 1969. That was Betsy, the last big hurricane that affected N.O. After that many years, people got complacent. I have to admit, I thought to myself, here we go again, big build-up to nothing.
Hold special prayers in your hearts for the nurses working in the destruction of Katrina.
At last note, evacuations of Charity hospital had to be stopped for a bit.
Per reports, the field hospital staff at New Orleans airport was having to "black tag" some patients - triage those that can survive long enough to be helped and those that will likely not survive the trip to safe evacuation. Our comrades in nursing are now having to the hardest things that they have ever had do, something that usually only occurs in war.
Keep them in your thoughts now and in the future as they will have to recover from this experience.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I have to answer some posts too, about the people that stayed. Those that stayed were people that didn't have transportation to leave. Poor people that don't own cars. There was no organized program that I heard of to evacuate people for free using buses. The other thing was that if you waited too long, then you were stuck in your car in the city or on the outskirts. I heard stories of it taking 8 hours or more to get to Baton Rouge, normally a 1 hr drive. I'm quite sure they will find bodies in flooded cars. Then there were people who didn't want to leave their pets and people knowing that their homes would be looted. Plus we've gotten away with this since 1969. That was Betsy, the last big hurricane that affected N.O. After that many years, people got complacent. I have to admit, I thought to myself, here we go again, big build-up to nothing.
Points are well-taken. (((Hugs))) to you----you are feeling the strain and pain as well.
Just got a call today, most likely will be working double shifts this holiday weekend, administration thinks we'll get hit with evacuees at my hospital. It's on a volunteer basis first. I volunteered. I'm broke so I can't donate money, I can't give blood because of some of the meds I'm on, so this is what I'll do as my part.
Been off work from surgery, got a call form work, expecting patients to be flown in this Pm, so I will go and do what I can to help in the traige and placement of the patients. Just hope we fair better than some areas and get the medical records with the patients. To all there keep up the work in the worse of conditions, to those going god bless you, and expect the worse.
Just got a call today, most likely will be working double shifts this holiday weekend, administration thinks we'll get hit with evacuees at my hospital. It's on a volunteer basis first. I volunteered. I'm broke so I can't donate money, I can't give blood because of some of the meds I'm on, so this is what I'll do as my part.
good for you...know that there is at least one nursing student out there who would love to be able to volunteer like that if she could. i'm not even a nurse yet so i can't help in that way....but i'll give what amount of money that i can...
This is just sad....
waltrip15
11 Posts
I WANT TO PRAISE YOU FOR YOU EFFORTS. I AM SURE BY THE PICTURES ON THE NEWS THAT YOU CAN BE OF USE. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE SUFFERING IT BREAKS MY HEART. I WATCH IT AND JUST WANT TO CRY. GOOD LUCK AND I WILL BE PRAYING FOR YOU.
:redbeathe