Aug. 31, 2005
This is a dispatch from New Orleans from Dr. Greg Henderson, a pathologist
who recently moved from Wilmington:
Thanks to all of you who have sent your notes of concern and your
prayers. I am writing this note on Tuesday at 2 PM. I wanted to update all
of you as
to the situation here. I don't know how much information you are getting
but I am certain it is more than we are getting. Be advised that almost
everything I am telling you is from direct observation or rumor from
reasonable sources. They are allowing limited Internet access, so I hope to
send this dispatch today.
I am now a temporary resident of the Ritz Carleton Hotel in New
Orleans. I figured if it was my time to go, I wanted to go in a place with
a good
wine list. In addition, this hotel is in a very old building on Canal
Street that could and did sustain little damage. Many of the other hotels
sustained significant loss of windows, and we expect that many of the guests
may be evacuated here.
Things were obviously bad yesterday, but they are much worse today.
Overnight the water arrived. Now Canal Street (true to its origins) is
indeed a canal. The first floor of all downtown buildings is underwater. I
have heard that Charity Hospital and Tulane are limited in their ability to
care for patients because of water. Ochsner is the only hospital that
remains fully functional. However, I spoke with them today and they too are
on generator and losing food and water fast.
The city now has no clean water, no sewerage system, no electricity, and no
real communications. Bodies are still being recovered floating in the
floods. We are worried about a cholera epidemic. Even the police are
without
effective communications. We have a group of armed police here with us at
the hotel that is admirably trying to exert some local law enforcement.
This
is tough because looting is now rampant. Most of it is not malicious
looting. These are poor and desperate people with no housing and no medical
care and no food or water trying to take care of themselves and their
families. Unfortunately, the people are armed and dangerous. We hear
gunshots frequently. Most of Canal street is occupied by armed looters who
have a low threshold for discharging their weapons. We hear gunshots
frequently. The looters are using makeshift boats made of pieces of
Styrofoam to access. We are still waiting for a significant national guard
presence.
The health care situation here has dramatically worsened overnight. Many
people in the hotel are elderly and small children. Many other guests have
unusual diseases. ... There are (Infectious Disease) physicians in at this
hotel attending an HIV confection. We have commandeered the world famous
French Quarter Bar to turn into an makeshift clinic. There is a team of
about
seven doctors and PAs and pharmacists. We anticipate that this will be the
major medical facility in the central business district and French Quarter.
Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police
escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the
entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police
escort. The looters had to be held back at gunpoint. After a dose of
prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine.
In all we are faring well. We have set up a hospital in the French
Qarter bar in the hotel, and will start admitting patients today. Many will
be from the hotel, but many will not. We are anticipating dealing with
multiple medical problems, medications and acute injuries. Infection
and perhaps even cholera are anticipated major problems. Food and water
shortages are imminent.
The biggest question to all of us is where is the National Guard. We hear
jet fighters and helicopters, but no real armed presence, and hence the
rampant looting. There is no Red Cross and no Salvation Army.
In a sort of cliche way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly
focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of
life. It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care
physician. We are under martial law so return to our homes is impossible.I
don't know how long it will be and this is my greatest fear. Despite it
all,
this is a soul-edifying experience. The greatest pain is to think about
the loss. And how long the rebuild will take. And the horror of so many dead
people .
PLEASE SEND THIS DISPATCH TO ALL YOU THING MAY BE INTERSTED IN A DISPATCH
from the front. I will send more according to your interest. Hopefully
their
collective prayers will be answered. By the way, suture packs, sterile
gloves and stethoscopes will be needed as the Ritz turns into a MASH
Greg Henderson
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