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by Jan Moller
NOLA.com, Staff writer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The emergency generators at Charity and University hospitals in downtown
New Orleans ran out of fuel and shut down at 8 a.m. today, worsening an
already intolerable situation for about 350 patients and more than 1,000
doctors, nurses and evacuees who sought shelter there.
Donald Smithburg, who heads Louisiana State University's Health Care
Services Division, said he's been told that fuel is available a few blocks
from the hospitals' downtown New Orleans campus, but that authorities have
not yet figured out how to transport it through the flooded streets to the
hospitals.
"It's my understanding that the fuel is nearby, it's just a problem of
getting to it,'' Smithburg said. "I think the state is as frustrated as we
are in findings ways to get it transported just a few blocks.''
The hospitals, which host the only Level 1 trauma center in southeast
Louisiana and also serve as teaching hospitals for LSU's medical school,
lost power during Katrina and lost use of their main emergency generator
due to flooding. Since then, they had been receiving power from a number
of smaller generators that have been used to support essential medical
equipment.
It has no water, sewerage or air conditioning and the lights have not been
used in an effort to conserve electricity, Smithburg said.
Although the trauma center was moved from ground level to a higher floor
at Charity before the floodwaters set in, the waters are too high for the
hospitals to admit any new patients, Smithburg said. Instead, the hospital
is hoping to evacuate its patients to public hospitals in Alexandria,
Lafayette, Shreveport, Lake Charles and Monroe.
Smithburg said disaster medical teams are en route to Louisiana from
Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, and that the charity system has
enough physicians and other staff to handle the job. "I think it's not a
question of having enough doctors and medics (in New Orleans). It's a
question of getting the patients out of New Orleans,'' Smithburg said.
About 20 patients on ventilators were evacuated Tuesday around nightfall,
Smithburg said.
Office of Homeland Security spokesman Mark Smith said Wednesday morning
that Coast Guard and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries rescue workers
are also focused on evacuating about 1,000 patients from Methodist
Hospital.
The LSU hospitals in Bogalusa and Houma also suffered storm damage and
will not be receiving evacuees, Smithburg said.
-Jan Moller
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