Baptist Hospital desperation from NOLA weblog: thirst and starvation

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http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/

BEGGING FOR BAPTIST HOSPITAL!!!

"Subject: My Hurricane Story -- BEGGING FOR BAPTIST HOSPITAL!!!

My brother, Dr. Bryant King, is stranded there and has been sending occassional text messages to let us know the situation.

Yesterday, he explained that management at the hospital decided to selctivley withold food and water from patients. Doctors are being forced to decide who gets to live and who will starve to death. The hospital is surrounded by 8ft of flood water; There is no more electricity, food or water. Windows are broken out and people are starving.

There has been very little press about this hosptial, but conditions are deplorable and they need to be evacuated. My brother asked that we please get them out of there. Please let the press know that Baptist Hospital (2700 Napolean Blv) is BEGGING FOR HELP!!! "

[tx_dem41]

1. That hospital is in the process of being evacuated.....

http://dallas.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=42400&type_news=latest

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2. Thank goodness. Let this be the day that people get food, water,

health care, shelter, safety.

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3. Whole hospitals forgotten. And emergency power flooded out.

How is it in a city below sea level, the emergency power systems that all hospitals are required to have, are not located on upper floors?

Hospitals are inspected every few years by JCAHO - how did they fail to catch this? Maybe instead of sending out teams of paper pushers they ought to send out real Engineers.

A technical society where the lawyers, politicians and public relations people rule.

A military kept on the sidelines while the dummy stutters, twisted up in his strings.

[tx_dem41]

4. That hospital has NOT been forgotten.

It is presently being evacuated.

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5. Several hospitals were forgotten. Physicians (chiefs of staff ?)have

resorted to communicating with the outside. I have worked in hospital administrations - this is an outrage. Life support equipment has battery power for alarm functions only. When battery power packs are purchased separately they are good for less than 4 hours at best.

That someone in a command center might have been discussing the hospitals in general may be the case - but frontline care givers in media interviews make it clear they were abandoned.

In and of itself the situations in several hospitals is scandalous and should result in prison time for those culpable - Malfeasance and manslaughter come to mind.

[tx_dem41]

6. I agree with you generally.

I am only discussing this particular hospital. My wife works in the corporate office and has been working on the evacuation.

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7. I understand. People are working their hearts out there.

But I've been in very large hospital when the lights went out and the only thing between life and death was me and a resuscitation bag.

The failure here has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with your wife's efforts. I know who runs hospitals and it starts with corporate boards who hear no evil speak no evil and see no evil.

Bless you and your wife - has she even been out of the hospital for five days?

[tx_dem41]

8. I miscommunicated....

she is in the corporate office working with the hospital. But thanks for the thoughts. :)

My father-in-law actually is Chief of Staff at Tulane University Hospital. He HAS been in the hospital for 7 days...he was supposed to evacuate yesterday, but the helo did not show up. Unfortunately (for his family), he is now getting sucked into the Charity Hospital situation.

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9. He must be groggy by now.

I spent 10 straight days working around the clock, providing patient care. I was one of two in my specialty for a 750 bed hospital. Didn't know day from night or what month it was after awhile. Took me a week to recover. But we had electricity - I honestly cannot fathom what your father in law is going through and he obviously is getting up in years and has far more responsibility than I ever did. Any way you cut it - it is a life of service and sacrifice.

[tx_dem41]

11. He's a wonderful man.

His "regular" job is running the neonatology unit at Tulane, caring for severely premature babies. I've visited the nursery several times. Watching him and his staff care for those babies brings tears to ones eyes.

Thanks, and bless you too!

[bleedingheart]

10. I heard on NPR about possibly euthanization of patients

one doctor said a friend told him that they were thinking about putting the more critical and less likely patients to survive "out of their misery"...

did anyone else hear this...

I can't imagine a situation like that....