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Show L/feThmi!l3EaBmSitesmah 10 Monday, Jept26,~2Q(&~ Good Samaritan overload in Louisiana : \ \ . • • • • • w si p-—O WASHINGTON - After Katrina, I went to Louisiana to help with the medical relief effort there, but I doubt I'll do the same if the need arises after Rita clears out of Texas. I'm confident they'll have things well covered down there. Here's why. It was a CNN report one night soon after Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans that did it for me. Doctors were described as working ridiculously long hours and manning intensive care units to the point of exhaustion. A lone pathologist, the report said, was wandering through New Orleans helping desperate people. " A pathologist?" I thought to myself. " A pathologist probably hasn't seen a live patient in years!" If a pathologist was out there ministering to hurricane victims, then what was holding back the rest of us doctors? So I decided to join George Washington University's Hurricane Medical Relief Team for deployment to Baton Rouge. I had the best of intentions. But so, it turned out, did hundreds, even thousands, of other physicians and medical personnel from around the United States. And that, surprisingly, turned out to be a little bit too much of a good thing. For me, the decision to Donation buckets for the victims of Hurricane Ka trina are available on any A&gie Shuttle bus. Please donate today. ro 2-time Olympic Medalist Rulon Gardner IN THE BOOKSTORE September 29 11-1:30 Get it at your UtohStote UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE vvvvw.bookstore.usu.edu Mon-Fn 8Jin-5pm, Sal J0om-2pm TSC. Lower Level*797-1666 g^^P^ T^&esm^t IT TOOK YOU A LIFETIME TO FIND HER And it only takes a few seconds, a few' words, to keep her-fof&v&K G^pte sepcitii for the ring that seals a lifetime of love. -,-*!? * DIAMONDS & FINE JEWELRY 575 East 1400 North, Suite #130 • Logan • 753-3050 University Village Shopping Center, next to Lee's Marketplace volunteer simply seemed right. My father, a retired physician, had just passed away. In the midst of the Depression, he had traversed Northern Manitoba caring for Native Americans, then served his country in World War II. Surely this was the moment to answer my profession's call as both a testimonial to my father and an example to my son. My family was worried about my going. My wife felt I shoula stay home and offer my services to evacuees brought here. My children were concerned that I could be exposed to all sorts of diseases. My partners thought my decision was admirable, but crazy. My friends thought it was heroic. The soccer team I coach even vowed to win a game for me. On Monday morning, Sept. 12, we arrived in Baton Rouge on a donated private jet, then were taken downtown to the state command center for emergency medical services. The place was buzzing with activity and packed with EMTs, nurses, doctors, administrators and clerks. I even saw several trucks from the Israeli rescue and response team in the parking lot. We were told to pitch our tents under some nearby pine trees. It was sweltering, and by the end of the afternoon I was soaked in sweat. After dinner in the command center, we awaited our assignments. Finally, around 9 p.m., a harried third-year pediatric resident from Tulane University Hospital told us that we were being assigned in small teams to various areas. I was to head the team going to the second district police station in New Orleans. We were to report to the command center by 5 a.m. Excited, I retired to my tent and tried to sleep. At 4:30 I got up and gathered with my group, which consisted of six EMTs, one ICU nurse, one fourth-year medical student and me. As we drove through the all but deserted streets, I was struck by how good New Orleans looked despite the damage. Yes, there were dead trees everywhere, and you could see damaged houses, but the roads were clear, and most of the dwellings looked livable. There was no flooding in this part of the Garden District. We drove down St. Charles Avenue with its stately homes to the second district police station on Magazine Street. We had plenty of medications and supplies for immunizations - and an abundance of manpower. The police officers were very hospitable as we set up a clinic. The only thing missing was ... patients. We immunized a few officers against hepatitis A and tetanus (due to the polluted flood waters), treated one officer's rash, and looked over two other officers with abrasions. But that was it. It would have been a slow day for my cousin the school nurse. Where, I wondered, were all the people with breathing problems or significant illnesses whom the news had led me to believe I'd encounter here? I suggested I go on patrol with an officer and see if I could USS Iwo Jima docked in the harbor. He kept repeating that there just weren't any more assignments. The shelters had plenty of medical personnel, the hospitals didn't want any more doctors, and the federal government hadn't communi: cated any need. Most of the evacuees had been treated or dispersed to other places. Area hospitals were adequately staffed. The military staffs its own ships. There was no need at this time for a pulmonologist, let alone a critical care physician. We had, in short, responder overkill. : It was at this point that I realized that these; hardworking people were actually wast 1 ing their time trying to be of any help on the streets. accommodate the goodheartI was told to go out with an ed response of all the mediofficer named Walt, but then cal personnel flocking to the his assignment changed. So scene. That's when I decided to return to Washington. *l basically, we all sat there. After a few hours, anx- caught a flight on Thursday, a ious to do more, I set off few days before my team was on a three-mile walk down due to head home. Magazine, through an area My experience as a medi-i that had been looted after the cal responder wasn't what I storm. I came across the occa- had expected from watching sional person packing belong- TV and reading the news. But ings. Two women - lawyers it did teach me a few valuloaded down with boxes of able - and humbling - lesdocuments - were transferring sons about emergencies and their office to Baton Rouge. how they play out here in the Two other women were pull- United States. First, I don't ing their payroll records and think there's any doubt that computer out of their dam- there will be an intense mediaged store. As I approached to cal response to any tragedy see if they needed some help, that strikes this country. Our they eyed me nervously and doctors and other medical declared that they had a gun. personnel, like people from I told them I was a doctor and scores of other fields, will pulled out my stethoscope. react with an outpouring of Then I helped them lift their time and effort to help their things into their van. fellow citizens in any way I chatted with a couple who they can. owned a seafood restaurant The second lesson, though, who said it would be a year or is that this response should two before they could reopen. be coordinated and stratiI was approached by three fied. There should be a preyoung National Guardsmen set list of first, second, third from Oklahoma, who reported and fourth responders ready that it had been extremely to be activated and sent to a quiet. When I returned to the disaster area as needed by a station after a few hours, I central command. That way, again asked if I could be of people would be less likely to use on patrol. The sergeant inundate an area with more thanked me, but said it wasn't volunteers than are needed at really necessary. Kindly, she any given time. suggested we return to Baton And the final lesson is this: Rouge and have a good steak Don't believe all you read and dinner. So we packed up and hear from the media about the headed back. situation on the ground. Yes, I felt frustrated. I wanted many mistakes were made, to be of more use. When we and yes, many people sufgot back to Baton Rouge, I fered, some of them terribly. asked to talk to those in charge But through the tireless, selfof assigning physicians and less efforts of tens of thouwas introduced to a very nice sands of people, the federal, young man, another pediatric state and local governments resident-turned-administrator, are righting the situation. That who appeared to be at his news may not be as dramatic wits' end. In a nutshell, he told for the media as reports of me they were having a hard lone physicians braving the time finding jobs for all the elements to help the dismedical personnel who had tressed, but if you ask me, it's descended upon Baton Rouge. closer to the reality of how I volunteered for anything - our country works. search and rescue on the boats Steven D. Lerner is a docpatrolling New Orleans, hostor in Washington, D.C. This pital work to spell tired physicolumn appeared in cians, or helping out on the The Washington Post. "I volunteered for anything... he kept repeating that there just weren't any more assignments." No one to ask? Just do it "', r .' w » . ^ '.,--- '•"'-.. 95.8% of USU students believe they are sexier without using alcohol. fTtieL'iahlj|gfic-iEdjLOic>fH!&j1tnlt-:-havlariur..cy. Sw'rn 2-0!:.) Achieving WoUticss Through B.itence in Ail Arm at Lite WASHINGTON -The people and agencies responding to Hurricane Rita's ominous approach to the Gulf Coast of Texas appear to be fast learners. Preparations for this latest weather onslaught went better than they did a month ago in New Orleans. But preparation - even when it hews closely to the "game plan" - only gets you so far. Let's hope these people have learned one more thing from Hurricane Katrina: Sometimes you need to break rules and take matters into your own hands. But the sad truth is that despite its success as a sportswear slogan, "Just do it" isn't a terribly popular idea in real American life. We've become a society of rule-followers and permission-seekers. Despite our can-do selfimage, what we really want is to be told what to do. When the going gets tough, the tough get consent forms. To be honest, the forced relocation of a city the size of New Orleans in less than a week was never going to happen without chaos, violence and death, even if it went exactly according to script. But it might have gone better with something added to the script - a little more insubordination and freelancing. The unfortunate truth is, when a 100-year hurricane hits a city that is poor and violent under the best of circumstances, if the people in charge don't break the rules, the people who aren't in charge will. It seems at least possible that there would have been less disorder after, the storm if more people had put their hunches and reputations on the line before and during it. Of cou rse there were examples of constructive rule-breaking in the Katrina disaster zone. One of the more memorable involved the mayor of Gulfport, Miss., who, as reported in The Washington Post, ordered his police chief to hot-wire a privately owned fuel truck and move it onto city property. One of the more incredible was the report in the New York Times about two Navy helicopter pilots who, after delivering food and water to military installations along the Gulf Coast, heard a radio transmission saying helicopters were needed to rescue people in New Orleans. Out of radio range of their commanders and unable to get permission, they nevertheless went to the rescue of about 100 people. When they got back they were reprimanded, according to the article. One pilot was grounded and put in charge of overseeing a kennel holding the pets of evacuated sefvice members. ? There were others. Some search-and-rescue teams agreed to carry out pets against the rules - because they knew it was the only way the animals' owners would leave. By now, New Orleans appears to have become an/ extremely orderly place. At nearly every corner, a group of soldiers stands ready to check ID. Rules are followed punctiliously. •: Everyone coloring inside the lines - it's a great system until the wind starts blowing really, really hard. David Brown covers science and medicine for The Washington Post. |