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From the left: Health Central’s Annette Hepner, LPN; Marie Adelson; Della Underwood, RN; Michelle Morganelli; Francia Camille; and Sandy Canada, RN, with Hurricane Katrina victim Troy Stevenson before skin graft surgery on his foot, injured while wading in New Orleans flood waters.
PHOTO/HEALTH CENTRAL |
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Florida Reaches Out to Gulf Coast Victims
Feeling an acute need to help, nurses at home are caring for evacuees with medical problems, or they’re trekking to affected areas to volunteer their services.
by Debra Anscombe Wood, RN
Across Florida, as nurses understood the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, they reached out to victims and peers in the affected areas.
“Everyone has been feeling empty-handed about what we can do here in Florida,” says Melody Guy, RN, director of maternal-child services at Health Central in Ocoee. A Mississippi woman delivering a healthy baby at Health Central provided the nurses an opportunity to assist by giving the new mom money, formula, and baby clothes. “It made the nurses feel they were actually helping everyone from the hurricane
by helping one family.”
On Health Central’s medical-surgical unit, meticulous nursing care has helped save Troy Stevenson’s foot and, probably, his career. The 41-year-old chef at one of New Orleans premier restaurants cut his foot on floating debris, then spent days trapped in six feet of fetid water with his wife, Courtney, and two sons. A boat finally rescued the family, but they then spent days on the Interstate 10 overpass with no food or water, waiting for a ride out. By the time Stevenson arrived at a Mississippi field hospital, a serious infection had taken hold. The Army doctor
sliced open his foot to let it drain and told Stevenson that an amputation was his only option. As a chef, he needs to stand for long periods; he refused the advice.
A family member drove from Orlando to pick up the family and take Stevenson to Orlando’s Health Central, where he was admitted Sept. 8. Doctors ordered massive antibiotics, debrided the wound, and performed two skin grafts.
“Given a lengthy recovery, he should be able to return to full functioning,” says Della Underwood, RN, MSN, director of medical-surgical services at Health Central. “Besides the intense medical interventions that occurred to save this man’s foot and leg, the reality is that it was a small part of the care in comparison with the psychosocial interventions that had to happen to get this person to a point where hope returned and he could move on and heal. The nurses have done a beautiful job with that.”
Airlifted evacuees
Thirty-nine patients from New Orleans touched down at Opa-locka Airport in Miami on Sept. 3. Miami Children’s Hospital partnered with the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center to triage patients at the airport’s Coast Guard Air Station Miami hangar. Miami Children’s admitted three of the seven youngsters arriving on the airlift; the Miami VA took three. Memorial Healthcare System hospitals in south Broward County accepted three critically ill adults.
“We had the patients triaged and out in about one-and-a-half hours,” says Claire Monzeglio, RN, MSN, CCRN, associate chief nurse for acute care at the Miami VA. “The nurses found it rewarding. You feel so helpless seeing it on TV.”
In North Florida, St. Vincent’s Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital in Jacksonville each received five patients, while West Florida Hospital in Pensacola accepted 10.
Other survivors making it to Florida also required medical care. Lyne Chamberlain, RN, CCRN, a progressive care unit nurse at Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital and an American Red Cross volunteer, has been assessing evacuees’ health needs at a Central Florida service center.
In partnership with the Red Cross, Orlando’s Florida Hospital Centra Care centers are providing free health exams and vaccinations to Katrina survivors.
“These families have already endured much hardship,” says Kim Graham, RN, Centra Care nursing coordinator. “Being able to assist these victims … with their health needs will help ease the stress as they rebuild their lives.”
Relief to the Gulf Coast
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Bartow Regional Medical Center staff in a medical tent in Biloxi, Miss. From the left: Velma Anderson, RN; Virginia McCoy, RN; Kristen Dees, LPN; Patricia Parker, RN; Terry Johnson, RN; and Teresa Stegall, RT.
PHOTO/BARTOW REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
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Six RNs from Bartow Regional Medical Center spent a week relieving nurses at Biloxi Regional Medical Center, a sister Health Management Associates facility. They drove up to Mississippi in an sSUV packed with supplies to find their peers struggling to care for patients with no running water or air conditioning. Immediately, they began pitching in.
Three med-surg nurses from Ocala Regional Medical Center traveled to the Gulf Coast to provide relief for nurses in a sister HCA hospital. More than two dozen other Ocala Regional nurses have volunteered to go and will be rotated in and out on seven- to 10-day cycles.
Lee Memorial Health System, Fort Myers, and Memorial Healthcare nurses have been deployed to the Gulf Coast with a disaster medical assistance team, or DMAT. Nurses from other hospitals remain on standby. Amie Tarantola, RN, MSN, ARNP, a family nurse practitioner at Wuesthoff Medical Center–Rockledge, expects to receive a call at any time to be deployed to a field hospital along the
Gulf Coast.
“The terrible need those people have has torn my heart out,” Tarantola says. “I really wanted to help if I could. It’s in the United States instead of another country, so to me it’s even more important to give back to our own.”
Hiring and giving
Florida hospitals are hiring evacuees. Lee Memorial has interviewed several health care workers from New Orleans who relocated to Southwest Florida. Ocala Regional has hired one nurse who was evacuated and may hire a second. Baptist Health South Florida, headquartered in Coral Gables, is offering up to $3,000
relocation assistance to evacuees. Tenet Healthcare and HCA are keeping employees in affected areas on the payroll until they can find positions at other facilities within the company.
Last year, HCA established HCA Hope Fund for its employees to donate to staff affected by Florida’s four hurricanes. The company matches every staff member’s donation, dollar for dollar. It gave $1 million to the fund this year for Katrina victims, as well as $1 million to the American Red Cross.
Wuesthoff staff donated scrubs, underwear and other clothing, personal items, and snack foods to employees at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, which has kept its doors open; board member Scott Huff delivered the items. Many other hospitals have held food and clothing drives and have allowed employees to cash in paid time off to donate to Katrina relief efforts.
Kathy Nix, RN, CNOR, a perioperative nurse at Florida Hospital Orlando, lost her home and two family members during a 1970s Alabama storm. She filled plastic “Baskets of Love” with soap, washcloths, toothbrushes and toothpaste, razors, and other items for survivors. She is also collecting scrubs, clothing, and stethoscopes for nurses still working in the region.
“I’ve been there and know how it feels,” Nix says. “We all have to dig a little deeper. God forbid it should ever happen to me again — but I hope somebody is there with a toothbrush and some soap.”
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