Life as a Spectator Sport

Because I am the sole caregiver for a diabetic, multiple-stroke victim, I've had an account with Medscape ever since the site came online. Medscape is primarily for medical professionals--I was an EMT when I first subscribed--but its information is useful to anyone who is a caregiver or is interested in medical issues.

On September 19, Medscape published an eight-part story of an LSU surgeon's experience in post-Katrina New Orleans. It is horrifying. I wish I could quote the whole thing, but it is available without charge. Go read it. You'll need to set up a Medscape account, but it's free.

Here are highlights from the account of Scott E. Delacroix, MD:

Wednesday (he was unable to get through earlier because of downed trees blocking the roads)

I was very nervous driving up to roadblocks with police officers on high alert. I learned that in my old truck in the pitch black with my lights on, every police officer had a gun drawn as I pulled up. I started to turn my lights off about 100 yd prior to roadblocks and turning the lights on in my car.

[...]

I parked my car and walked into a sea of people . . . As I walked up and viewed the scene, 2000-3000 people on the edge of the Interstate: standing, sitting, or lying down behind barricades. Between them and the highway lanes were barricades and state troopers. Two of the 4 traffic lanes open for passage. The remaining 2 lanes and the inside shoulder of the Interstate were crowded with a site out of a bad dream. Patients were laying on broken gurneys, were laying on cardboard boxes, were laying in the street. Some were extremely old and decrepit appearing -- unable to speak. Nursing homes and hospitals had somehow been evacuated to the I-10 and Causeway Interchange. Patients were laying on the ground and in small cots with their medical charts used as pillows. They numbered in the hundreds. On top of these, evacuees of all ages began to succumb to the elements and horrible conditions in which they were being held. A steady flow of elderly persons with chest pain and shortness of breath streamed across the barricades and into our "triage" area. Children ages 4-6 with seizure disorders began having seizures. Asthmatics and evacuees with emphysema began to come to triage seeking oxygen and respiratory treatment. Dehydration was apparent, especially in the elderly and mentally retarded patients who were laying in the streets.

[...]

Supplies were very low. I was wiping off ventilation masks and reusing them to save supplies. There were sick people in need everywhere you walked. A highway of patients. The helicopters continued to land. Patients continued to come to our triage with their entire medical charts from whatever hospital they had been in -- a postoperative knee replacement, a postoperative coronary bypass, a mentally retarded nonambulatory lying there in diapers. What was going on in their minds?

[...]

I spoke with someone who said that FEMA was setting up a hospital at the airport, and some would be going to Baton Rouge. The transport was slow. There was no central command. No definite place for these people. Didn't know how many more were coming, but that they just kept coming -- helicopter after helicopter. Supplies low, one of the psychologists contacted EOC [Emergency Operations Center] or DHH [Department of Health and Hospitals] in Baton Rouge and placed me on the phone to give a description of the supplies that we needed. Pedialyte, formula, oxygen, aspirin, IV [intravenous] sedation, and transportation. This chaos went on into the next morning. There were several bodies placed in the median behind our trailers.

Thursday

One of the volunteers approached me and said that there was a medical convoy that had arrived to help and wanted to know where to set up. I walked about 2 blocks and met Gordon Bergh and the Austin City [Texas] EMS [Emergency Medical Services]. Gordon asked how he could help and where I wanted them to set up. They had a command and control station, 4 ambulances, and 8-10 EMTs. We discussed a plan to set up a triage station on the opposite site of the current one. Now our "hospital" had swelled to encompass both the East and Westbound lanes of Interstate 10. Helicopters still landing. About 3000-5000 people still in our location. I received word that the FEMA official said that they were pulling out. Until this point, FEMA was providing no medical assistance, but they were helping to obtain transportation for these people. The transportation was inadequate to say the least, and now they were pulling out? I approached the official and asked him whether it was true that they were pulling out and if so why. I was told that yes they were leaving, and he was unsure why. His comment was that the decision had been made by "people above my pay grade" as he shrugs his shoulders. Rumor was that shootings in New Orleans had spurred someone higher up in FEMA to pull back. This was ridiculous. We were 1.5 miles outside of New Orleans proper. At that time, we had no security problem. We did not have a security problem until later that day when transportation slowed almost to a standstill. No more FEMA, very little transportation.

[...]

Still no FEMA -- little transportation has these people languishing in horrible conditions. Austin City EMS pulled out and headed to the airport where FEMA was supposedly set up. Nick [Nick Pieper, Los Angeles EMS} and I remained at Causeway and I-10 for a couple more hours and had to leave secondary to exhaustion.

[...]

Late Thursday Night/Friday Morning (About 1:00 am)
In my old Toyota 4Runner, we headed to the airport to see what FEMA had set up, considering that they had abandoned us . . . I walked into the second floor of the airport and then down to the first floor. There were patients laying everywhere. I saw a lot of the same patients who had spent 2 days on I-10 now sitting and lying all over the first-floor baggage claim and outside on the cement drop-off area. A man lay in the corner with bilateral chest tubes and no medical care. I felt horrible that this was where I had sent my patients. This was not the better place I had promised them that they were going. Went through security back on the second floor and saw a man that was helping at Causeway and I-10 the previous day. Why did FEMA leave us? I was told "off-the-record" that the official statement would be this:

When city planners (Dr. Maestri) had discussed this doomsday scenario in New Orleans, FEMA officials had told them that the city would have to hold out for 48 hours; then the Feds would be on the ground to provide support. The excuse for taking so long was going to be that the hurricane hit on Monday, but because of the 17th Street canal break which happened Tuesday night-Wednesday morning, this would be classified as an evolving disaster. Not until the lake equilibrated with the water in the city (hence not until the city was 80% underwater) and the water stopped rising did FEMA consider to be on the clock. This did not happen until early Thursday morning.

My reaction was less than doctorly. After a few expletives and expressing my frustration with the whole situation, including now the deplorable conditions on the first floor at the airport, Nick and I left. We were told to check in at EOC in Baton Rouge tomorrow.

Friday

Pick up Nick and we went to EOC at Bluebonnett Street in Baton Rouge. Walked in and spoke with DD (a woman who had been at Causeway and I-10). She was coordinating supply deliveries and volunteers. Not much going on. We walked back into the central room. Large map hanging on the wall. Spoke with some men in uniforms. Still no real command and control. I told them of the 150 trapped in the Park Esplanade, but was told that there was no way of communicating with search and rescue teams in New Orleans.

[...]

Return to New Orleans Causeway and I-10 still going stronger than ever. It has ballooned to approximately 5000. Entire families still sitting under the overpasses. No transportation at all. No FEMA. Parked my car and saw the FEMA official. "Y'all are back finally" was my comment. "Not officially," he said. "We are here to collect the bodies." What? His comment was that he was not officially on the ground and that they were there only to collect bodies -- not for other support.

[...]

Midnight Friday Until 10:30 am Saturday Morning
Nonstop helicopters of all types landing. We collected the sickest patients first and transported them out. As the morning grew closer, Operation Cloverleaf (as it was called) became more and more hectic -- 3 helicopters landing at a time. Groups of 8 placed into the helicopters. Those who were reluctant to get on a helicopter again received a dose of bravery in the form of a Xanax tab. Coordination was done with the 20-25 National Guard officers, Nick, Kelly, Danny [Kelly Tourere and Danny Dickson, Registered Nurses], and about 15 other EMTs. We evacuated thousands out in a 10.5-hour period . . . At dawn lines of buses began arriving. Finally, it is Saturday morning and we are now getting real help!! Sometime that morning, as I was loading persons onto a helicopter, a crew member said to look up. President Bush was flying over our area. I stepped back after the last person was loaded onto the helicopter, and there were possibly 100 people left; only dogs were running where people had been in such turmoil . . . We had done it, finally. Senator Frist toured throughout the freshly evacuated area. It was puzzling that we received transportation for our people in the immediate 12 hours prior to the President's and Senator's visit.

Rested for an hour. One of the new doctors went to the airport to see whether all of these new doctors and supplies could be of use. He returned with a grim face, saying that the airport was atrocious and that he had been told by FEMA that we could provide no medical care because we were not government-licensed physicians. I spoke to EOC/DHH in Baton Rouge (Jimmy Guidry) who was extremely upset at the FEMA Bureaucracy. FEMA denied help at the airport from well-staffed local doctors even though people were in need.

Sunday and Monday

Drove back into the city. I-10 and Causeway were abandoned. Good -- a sense of relief. Took River Road into the city, then St. Charles to downtown through the French Quarter. Relatively minor damage in the Garden District and the French Quarter. We made it past the Quarter onto Elysian Fields. Following us was a car with 3 LSU medical students and a Sky News crew. Down St. Claude Avenue where the water began. Close to getting stranded ourselves, we made it onto the I-10 and found South Texas K-9 rescue (Shane Rominger) at the next exit. They were launching boats and retrieving evacuees from these flooded neighborhoods.

[...]

Monday we set up a triage area on I-10 out the back of my car and continued to see patients. We did this through Monday afternoon. Organization was apparent, and there was central command for the police action in the city and the evacuation of these people. Monday evening we left for good. Sunday we had triaged about 400 patients from the I-10 exit and Monday about 50. People who wanted to leave had mostly left.

[...]

Why did FEMA pull out on Thursday morning? Why would FEMA not accept medical help on Saturday for an obviously overrun evacuation center at the New Orleans International Airport? What kind of excuse is this evolving disaster explanation? To come back on Friday in front of 1000 needy people and say that FEMA is technically not back and is here only to collect the bodies?

Dr. Dr. Delacroix ends with what has to be the most understated comment anyone has made on this whole disaster:

There are problems with our current coordination of mass disasters that need to be resolved so that we do not repeat these mistakes again.

I'll rephrase that: there are problems with some of the PEOPLE in our government. God help us if we repeat the mistake of electing any of them ever again.

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RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email to liz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002