The BIG Elephant in the room: Is it about poverty and race?
CNN's Dr. Gupta: "Scene at Charity Hospital 'disgusting'"
From today's blog CNN's Dr Gupta is embedded with other doctors:
Posted: 10:15 a.m. ET
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta in New Orleans, Louisiana
The scene inside Charity Hospital is disgusting. I think that is probably the best word for it. It really is unbelievable.
There's no electricity. There's no working plumbing. They haven't had power since Monday. They have had no water since Tuesday.
In these conditions, the doctors are trying to take care of critically ill patients. I walk through the halls with doctors and they just literally grab at my shirt and say, "Tell them to send help. We need boats. We need amphibious vehicles." (See Dr. Gupta's report on the "gruesome" conditions at Charity Hospital -- 4:45)
More on the flip...
Charity Hospital is the BIGGEST Public Hospital in New Orleans. Tulane University Health Sciences Center was secured and evacuated days ago by "private means".
Charity is one of the largest hospitals in Louisiana. It is surrounded by six to eight feet of water. The only way you can get here is by boat or amphibious vehicle. We took a boat here yesterday.
I was told that someone was shooting at doctors and patients as they were trying to get out of this place to other hospitals where they can get better care. This is the most mind boggling thing I have heard.
There was a patient on a ventilator that needed to have air bagged into their lungs. Doctors and nurses and healthcare professionals were doing that for hours on end. Two patients died on the parking deck, which has become a modified landing zone for helicopters.
So it is primitive. It is disgusting.
In fairness, conditions did start to improve somewhat yesterday. They were able to get some patients out yesterday and they were told that evacuations would start again sometime this morning.
But evacuations haven't started as of yet.
The way it works here is they figure out who is the neediest, who needs to go. They find their medications and tape those to the patients' stretchers and wait right by the water for a boat to come and take them to the landing zone.
That is what is happening right now. They are waiting.
As a doctor, I know that feeling of being the sole voice and advocate for my patients who are uninsured, sick, elderly, and YES black and uneducated. They depend on Government. They need Government.
UPDATE: HHS coordinating volunteer physicians to help Hurricane Katrina victims
To coordinate the medical assistance offered by physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is now managing this national medical relief effort.
Physicians and other medical professionals with any state license who can commit to short-term, long-term or rotating coverage are urgently needed in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
HHS has contracted with JCNationwide for this effort. Please call (800) 272-2707 if you can be of assistance.
The AMA is sharing this contact information with the physicians of America immediately. We encourage the media to help us communicate with physicians in their communities about this way to help