New Orleans Doctors Recount Katrina Experiences

• Public Health • Nov 02, 06

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, New Orleans hospitals were on the front lines of the crisis. In November’s special issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (AJMS), the official journal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (SSCI), physicians from New Orleans hospitals and medical schools relate their experiences in coping with the destruction and loss of Katrina- as well as their determination to overcome those losses by rebuilding the city’s clinical and educational health care infrastructure.

Several articles in the special issue tell stories of doctors stranded along with patients at New Orleans hospitals - their shock as they realized the extent of the disaster, the heartbreaking scenes of loss and despair they witnessed, and the inspiring responses of dedicated health professionals. Other contributions highlight the arduous process of recovery, from initial efforts to save stranded patients and provide immediate care for evacuees, to ongoing plans for restoring New Orleans’ capacity to provide top-quality care for patients and educational experiences for medical students and residents.

The lead article describes events at New Orleans’ main public hospital, Charity Hospital, where Dr. Ben deBoisblanc and staff struggled heroically to accommodate the patients that continued to arrive at a hospital facing conditions of “complete isolation and uncertainty.” Dr. deBoisblanc writes movingly of the cataclysmic lessons learned at “Big Charity”:

“Beyond the suffering and unspeakable loss, those of us fortunate enough to have witnessed these events firsthand will forever be aware of the sparkling power of the human spirit and, filled with the sense and marvelous irony that such a tragedy reawakens old promises made to ourselves as well as to others, will be changed for the better as well.”

Doctors at other New Orleans hospitals—including Louisiana State University Hospital, Tulane Medical Center, and VA Medical Center, all located within blocks of each other—tell of similar hardships and offer similar praise for their colleagues’ professionalism and compassion. At University Hospital, chief resident Dr. Vince D. Cataldo found himself serving as internal medicine staff physician a few days after sitting for his licensure examination. He writes, “In worse-than-Third-World conditions, my residents and interns assessed and cared for each patient with the same vigor and resolve expected of a physician practicing at the most well-equipped facility in the world.”

The displaced New Orleans medical community mobilized quickly to provide care for evacuees—within days, LSU Health Sciences Center had established a base of operations and clinic in Baton Rouge. Further challenges awaited as faculty attempted to reconstruct educational experiences for displaced medical students and residents, and to begin planning for the eventual transition back to New Orleans.

Recovery continues to face major obstacles - not only the loss of buildings and equipment, but of students, faculty, and support staff—yet in many regards has proceeded remarkably well. “Rebuilding requires leadership, patience, and perseverance….facilities, people, and cooperation,” write Dr. Ian L. Taylor and colleagues of Tulane University. “Without these key elements, we would not have been able to rebuild as quickly as we did following our disaster.”

Several authors write of lessons learned from Katrina, and advice they would offer to other hospitals and medical schools faced with planning for such unthinkable events. Dr. Sheila W. Chauvin and colleagues of LSU cite the importance of organizational and individual preparedness, the need to ensure people’s safety and well-being, and—a theme echoed by many—the need to “communicate, communicate, communicate” when a disaster strikes.

The editors of AJMS hope that these experiences and insights will help to guide other institutions as they think about their own level of disaster preparedness. “[Our] major goal is to offer constructive commentary about how such events could be better managed in the future as a result of better planning in advance of the event,” writes Dr. David W. Ploth, Editor-in-Chief of AJMS. “We hope this special issue addresses this topic effectively.”