Evacuations resumed Friday at some of New Orleans' most troubled
hospitals where desperate doctors were being forced to make tough
choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and
medicines.
Rescuers finally made it into Charity Hospital, the largest public
hospital and trauma center in the city, where gunshots prevented efforts
on Thursday to evacuate more than 250 patients.
"We moved all of the babies out of Charity this morning," said Keith
Simon, spokesman for Acadian Ambulance Service Inc.
Richard Zuschlag, the ambulance company's president, said the military
was handling the evacuation of Charity and other hospitals in the
flooded downtown.
Relatives of Dr. L. Lee Hamm, chairman of medicine at Tulane University,
also reported that they received a text message from him around midday
Friday, confirming that evacuations were taking place at Charity
Hospital.
"We're starting to make some headway," said Knox Andress, an emergency
room nurse in Shreveport, La., who is helping coordinate relocation
efforts.
He and others remained most concerned about University Hospital, where
about 500 family and staff members joined 110 very ill patients and
hundreds of others from the general community needing evacuation.
Andress and others had lost emergency radio communications with that
hospital.
Paula Dees of Tallahassee, Fla., said her father, Dr. Oscar Ballester,
called her early Friday morning from University, where he and his wife,
Dr. Gabriela Ballester, have been working since Saturday.
"They're just begging for help," Dees said. "They're rationed a liter of
water a day and have minimal food. He keeps saying, 'They forgot about
us.'"
Her father also is a diabetic and has only about a day's supply of
insulin left, she said.
Doctors at both Charity and University had called The Associated Press
on Thursday, pleading for help.
Don Smithburg, CEO of Louisiana State University hospital system, which
oversees the two public hospitals, said evacuation resumed Friday at
Charity after state police stepped up their protection. But action was
suspended again later in the day, after all patients and many staffers
got out.
"The evacuation has been called off again and we are seeking additional
security presence so that we can continue the evacuation" of personnel,
he said.
"In some areas we are out of food and water," Smithburg said. "Some of
my staff are giving each other intravenous fluids. We have to get them
out of today."
He said sick newborns and 10 healthy babies had been evacuated.
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Reporters Janet McConnaughey and Melinda Deslaitte in Baton Rouge,
La., contributed to this report. Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione is
based in Milwaukee.
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