"I cannot even begin to describe my gratitude to everyone on 5West---they worked through the heat, dark, etc to provide care for our patients, and ultimately we all made it."
The recent disaster of Hurricane Katrina hit home for Youth Radio’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Jayme Burke, when she discovered that her sister was stranded in a hospital in Louisiana.
Dr. Kurtz-Burke stayed with her patients during the harrowing ordeal of Hurricane Katrina, risking her life to care for her patients and to ensure their safe evacuation. She, along with many other Charity Hospital staff, worked through storm-wrecked conditions and were stranded for a total of five days before being evacuated. Jayme, her husband and Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke are continuing to assist in the relief efforts at a makeshift airport hospital. Read a letter written by Dr. Kurtz-Burke to her residents, describing her five days stranded at Charity Hospital and a follow-up letter from her husband, Justin Lundgren.
Friday, Sept 16, 2005:
Hey everybody, sorry for the group-mail but in times like these, there's no other way. Kiersta and I have been in Cincinnati for the last 5 days and will heading up to Michigan tomorrow to see her family.
Life is quite unsettled at this point. I'm pretty sure I still have a job, and I'm 100% sure that our house is a total loss as is the case for many of you. Just keep repeating, "I'm alive, objects don't matter. I'm alive, objects don't matter." The human drive to accumulate stuff is pretty strong - I
made my first purchase since the storm this last Sunday, a tacky $1.99 Big Boy watch. And so the amassing of worthless crap begins anew. Amen.
K and I will be heading back to the Nola region next weekend and will probably be living in Gonzales for a few weeks until power is fully restored to large chunks of the city like Uptown and the FQ [French Quarter]. I may have access to free digs in Metairie but Kiersta scoffs at the idea. "I didn't spend five days fighting my way out of Charity hospital to end up in Jefferson Parish," she mutters.
After the experience of the last few weeks my neighborhood standards have lowered substantially - I'll
live in the Sudan if the digs are cozy.
I've discovered that being temporarily unemployed and
homeless does have its advantages, though, especially if you're lucky enough to have midwestern relatives who will take you in, feed you, and provide 24 hour access to CNN.
Prior to Katrina, I'd been working on a photo project, "Greetings from New Orleans: An Experiment in Found Art," and was looking for ways to get it out there in the public eye. With all the down time of the last couple days, I managed pull myself away from CNN briefly and accomplish one of my longheld goals: I sat down at my father's computer and set up a website to display this project I've been working on so diligently for the last 3 months. So check it out www.greetingsfromneworleans.typepad.com. If you know someone from New Orleans send them the link - the project is about a lot of different things, but it's in large part about the city and the people who used to inhabit it.
Right now I'm feeling weepy nostalgic about all that's been lost, and frankly I just want to reconnect with all you New Orleanians. In New Orleans that is. Please don't come visit me here. I'm too busy watching CNN to physically meet anyone.
I do know that when we return next week and start this grand adventure of rebuilding it's going to be brutally painful and although I'm frequently annoyed by people who are overly nostalgic, there's no denying that I'm going to be one of those people.
Love to you all, and please consider coming back. I don't know if K and I are gonna be there forever, but I do feel like we owe the city at least a few years of our collective energies.
Honestly, if we moved anywhere else at this point I'd spend all my time wondering about what's going on in New Orleans. For better or worse, it's gonna be interesting.
Take care,
Justin
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Monday, Sept 5, 2005:
Where should we even begin? I would love to hear how everyone is doing and share info about contact numbers. I'm sure every single person has been through their own struggle in the past week, and I can only hope that you are all safe and healthy.
Marco and I were activated before the storm so we spent Sunday through Friday at Charity Hospital. There are a lot of things that I would like to share with all of you about the five days we were there, but for now we’ll start with just the basics. We had 16 patients on 5West---they all survived the storm, the flood, and were evacuated to other hospitals on Friday. Power went out on Monday around 9am, but we had hospital-wide generator power for a few hours after that, before that failed as well. The 5West unit did take on a lot of water during the storm (not from rising H20, but from window/roof leakage), but we cleaned it out and the rest of the week our floor was dry.
At first, Charity was not surrounded by water, but by Tuesday morning it was waist-high or higher around the building (I guess from the levee break).There were a few shattered windows at Charity, mostly in the resident call rooms, but actually very few compared to other downtown buildings like the Hyatt. The hospital lab equipment was damaged in the storm and we had no ability to run labs after Sunday night. There were a few small portable generators that were used throughout the week in the MICU, SICU, and MER (moved from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor) auditorium.
I'm not sure of the final count, but I believe 400 or so patients were in the hospital at the start, and a total of around 1000-1200 people (staff, family members, etc). Four of our therapists were there (Ha, Maggie, John, Anna and her daughter), as were many of the regular day and night nursing/clerical staff (Marguerite, Chenell, Iyana, Claudia, Rose, Walter, Darryl, Ashley, Frankie, etc), and some of them brought family members. Also, Miss Mary (our L&M elevator operator) came in Sunday night so she wouldn't miss work on Monday, and she was there for the duration in her usual upbeat spirits. My husband also came in on Thursday (long, strange story) and stayed through the evacuation.
I cannot even begin to describe my gratitude to everyone on 5West---they worked through the heat, dark, etc to provide care for our patients, and ultimately we all made it. I want you to know that not a single vital sign, urine output, or blood sugar was missed on those days. Our therapists got the patients up in wheelchairs every day and did what therapy they could safely in the dark, which I think helped keep up morale tremendously. Marco was an absolute joy to work with. He maintained the coolest composure in the hospital, and practiced so much medicine that I think he should get a diploma immediately.
After a long wait, many rumors, security issues and other craziness, we got all the patients out on Friday-- with discharge summaries and medications in waterproof packages pinned to them. We were evacuated by various vehicles, mostly swamp boats by the LA wildlife and fisheries and Texas game wardens, but also 18 wheeler trucks. Patients were carried down the stairwell on spine boards by Charity staff, mostly made from tables, plywood, etc. Every single person from 5West got out safely, but we all wound up in different Red Cross centers, so we aren't really in touch---I hope to be soon. One person I am concerned about is our clerk, Iyana. By Friday, several Charity staff were frustrated by the lack of evacuation and they walked out into the water, including Iyana. She had planned to be picked up by her husband on the overpass, but if anyone knows how to contact her we would all be grateful.
Anyway, sorry so wordy. There's a lot to say. The thousand or so people in that building acted with such grace and unbelievable caring for each other. We had our low moments, but we were also able to laugh and we were convinced that we would all survive. The patients were great despite the conditions and uncertainty. I know there's a lot of attention on a few thugs who acted like thugs, but make sure that everyone knows the kind attitude and sheer willpower demonstrated by the majority of people. Be proud that you worked, and will work again, at Charity Hospital. It is truly where the unusual occurs and miracles happen....I just never knew how unusual it could get. We are having a joyous famliy reunion in Texas, and plan to return to NOLA tomorrow to work at the makeshift airport hospital. Maybe I'll see a few of you there.
Please take care and keep in touch,
Kiersta Kurtz-Burke
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