Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (82 page)

 
38
She rarely took
: Diane Loupe, “5 Lucky Women Were Bumped from Plane,”
Times-Picayune
, July 11, 1982.

 
39
merged with a New Orleans Catholic hospital … sold to giant, for-profit Tenet
: Harrell, Byron R. and Sister Barbara Grant, “Memorandum to: Employees of Southern Baptist Hospital and Mercy Hospital,” September 1, 1993; “Mercy and Baptist Hospitals Announce Plans to Merge,” news release, Peter A. Mayer Advertising, Inc., September 1, 1993; Pope, John, “Baptist, Mercy Joining Forces,”
Times-Picayune
, September 2, 1993; Rubinow, Marisa, “The Merger,”
Healthcare New Orleans
, October 1993; “Mercy†Baptist Joins Tenet Louisiana Health System,”
Tenet Louisiana Health System
(bimonthly employee newsletter), November 1995. “Another Shift Toward Tomorrow,”
Collaborations
(health and wellness magazine from Mercy†Baptist Medical Center), Summer 1995.

 
40
Christmas decorating contests
:
The Triangle
(January 1971). (Winners in 1970 included a Madonna made of foil and a picture decorated with “appropriately colored rug yarn.”) Faith was a consistent theme in hospital newsletters (“There are times when a prayer can be as soothing as a sedative,”
The Triangle
, May 1967), and was foundational. The program structure for Southern Baptist Hospitals, adopted in 1962, stated: “A Baptist hospital exists to bring men into a saving relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ by means of direct personal witness as occasion presents, and by a positive Christian interpretation of the experiences of disease, disability, and death.” Still, concern for the bottom line existed even in that period. In providing for the medically indigent and Baptist denominational personnel, hospitals were to do so “within such limits as will not endanger the financial soundness of the institutions” (
Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention
, 1962, pp. 61–62). Although the Southern Baptist Convention broke ties with the hospital in June 1970 (Wilson, Raymond C. “Thinking Out Loud,”
The Triangle
[July 1970]), it was to continue operating “as an independent Christian institution” under a body that also governed Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, FL.

 
41
it seemed to one
: Dr. John Kokemor.

 
42
The head pharmacist had requested
: E-mail sent by Memorial pharmacy director Curtis Hebert, 7:00 p.m., Sunday, August 28, 2005.

 
43
“Rene’s major concern …
”: Sent 9:03 a.m. Monday, August 29, 2005.

 
44
was unable to reach his wife
: The nurse documented this in Everett’s chart.

CHAPTER 4

Interviews

Knox Andress; Dr. Horace Baltz; MAJ Betty Bennett; Kamel Boughrara; Keith Brisbois; LT Shelley M. Colbert; Dr. Ewing Cook; Minnie Cook; Marc Creswell; Dr. Richard Deichmann; Rebecca DeLasalle; Dr. Windsor Dennis; Hugh Eley; John Ferrero; Faye Garvey; Dr. Juan Jorge Gershanik; Cathy Green; LT Catharine Gross; LCDR Russell Hall; Dr. Robert Hendler; Gina Isbell; Dr. Bryant King; CDR Scott Langum; Wayne Leche; Father John Marse; CDR (ret.) William F. McMeekin; Therese Mendez; LT/O3E Sean Moore; Dr. Susan Nelson; Dr. Paul Primeaux; Dr. Angela Reginelli; Michael Richard; AMT2 Randal Ripley; Karen Sanford; Rodney Scott; Mike Sonnier; Dr. Kevin Stephens; Dr. Robert Wise; Karen Wynn; Eric Yancovich.

Notes

  
1
WWL, a popular
: For more details on the effort, see Moody, Reginald F., “Radio’s Role During Hurricane Katrina: A Case Study of WWL Radio and United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans,” PhD diss., University of Southern Mississippi; Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Microform, 3268460, 2006.

  
2
martial law had been declared
: Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard on WWL broadcasts, including during the eleven p.m. CDT hour of August 29, 2005.

  
3
“My question is …”
: WWL 11:13 p.m., CDT, August 28, 2005.

  
4
“We’re very frightened …”
: WWL 4:22 a.m., CDT, August 30, 2005.

  
5
The meeting took place
: Descriptions based on photographs taken in the room during the disaster.

  
6
“soul surviving”
: Lindzy Louis IV, recorded June 23, 2007 for the oral history project “Surviving Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Houston Collection” (AFC 2008/006), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (Interview SR012, Accession # SKR-CJ-SR02).

  
7
Tropical Storm Allison
: See, for example, “Tropical Storm Allison, June 2001: RMS Event Report” (Newark, CA:
Risk Management Solutions
, 2001); “Lessons Learned from a Hospital Evacuation During Tropical Storm Allison,”
Suburban Emergency Management Project
, Biot Report #216, May 21, 2005 (“Lesson 1: Flooding will occur on a flood plain. Don’t be surprised when it happens, especially when your hospital is built on a flood plain …”). Several lawsuits were filed against hospitals after Allison, including one brought by the family of Charles Brunkenhoefer (172nd District Court, Jefferson County, TX, no. E-169,673), who died after the hospital where he was being treated lost power. In another case, Texas Woman’s University sued the Methodist Hospital for allegedly having diverted surface water into a tunnel leading to the campus of the other hospital (151st District Court, Harris County, Texas, no. 2003-31948).

  
8
known then as the Joint Commission
: The organization’s name was changed in 2007 to The Joint Commission. Memorial’s JCAHO hospital accreditation program and home care program survey, May 17–19, 2005, organizational ID no: 8778.

  
9
a fairly typical number
: Dr. Robert Wise, personal communication, 2010.

 
10
paved the way for state licensure
: In Louisiana, accreditation by JCAHO was acceptable by the health department in lieu of its annual re-survey (“9309. Exceptions,”
Louisiana Register
, vol. 29, no. 11, November 30, 2003, p. 2404).

 
11
By 2005, more than a billion
: “Hospitals Rising to the Challenge: The First Five Years of the U.S. Hospital Preparedness Program and Priorities Going Forward,” UPMC Center for Biosecurity (now known as the UPMC Center for Health Security), March, 2009;
http://www.upmchealthsecurity.org/website/resources/publications/2009/2009-04-16-hppreport.html
. $135 million in 2002 and $515 million in 2003 and in 2004.

 
12
a three-page form
: Memorial’s was essentially identical to a sample hazard vulnerability analysis tool published by Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. in 2001, “Kaiser Permanente: Medical Center Hazard and Vulnerability Analysis”;
http://www.calhospitalprepare.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/kp_hva_template_2010.xls
.

 
13
far exceeded federal requirements
: As of July 2013, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had still not issued a proposed rule on emergency preparedness, which had been listed in the Federal Register in fall 2010 and was later “scheduled for publication in early 2012,” according to CMS, “in response to concern about the ability of healthcare providers across the United States to plan for and respond to emergencies.” (CMS Spotlight, “Emergency Preparedness Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participating Providers and Suppliers: CMS-3178”;
http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/CFCsAndCoPs/Spotlight.html
) The long-belated rule, inspired in part by the failures of preparedness after Hurricane Katrina, would make it a requirement for health care facilities, including hospitals, to meet certain preparedness standards in order to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. According to observers of the process, CMS received pushback against potentially costly new requirements, delaying the adoption of the rule. The “systemic gaps” in healthcare preparedness remained unfilled.

 
14
Arvin, in Texas, had no background
: Oral deposition of Michael Arvin, August 26, 2010, in
Preston, et al v. Tenet
.

 
15
Atlanta was a former Baptist hospital
: Greene, Glen Lee.
The History of Southern Baptist Hospital
, revised edition (New Orleans: Southern Baptist Hospital, 1976, and original 1969 edition), p. 24.

 
16
new inpatient hospitalist
: “Hospitalists Now on Staff,”
Connections
(May 2005).

 
17
“I’m in charge …”
: This account is from Dr. Cook (interviews with author in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2013). Dr. King confirmed those recollections in 2009 and 2013. He said he believed that his patient required telemetry monitoring: “Patients who needed certain things, if we can provide them, we should still have them,” and he thought the interaction may have taken place at an earlier point in the disaster.

 
18
A rusting helipad
: Staff sent the Southern Baptist Hospital helipad site plan chart to Coast Guard personnel. “Growing to Serve You Better,”
Spectrum
(Spring 1985), p. 19, described the Helistop and other “Project 2000” construction projects under way in 1985, including the creation of the six-story Clara Wing and power plant building.

 
19
Black Hawk, weighing more than 11,000 pounds
: Empty weight reported on various specification sheets;
http://www.sikorskyarchives.com/S-70A%20(UH-60M%20Black%20Hawk,%20HH-60M
).php. One Jayhawk landed at Memorial weighing 18,500 pounds, less than half full of fuel, according to co-pilot LT Catharine Gross.

 
20
a nurse’s husband
: LT/O3E Sean Moore (rank as of July 2013).

 
21
A nurse’s husband sat in a chair
: The photograph of the unnamed husband holding the baby is in Bernard, Marirose and Pamela R. Mathews. “Evacuation of a Maternal-Newborn Area During Hurricane Katrina,”
MCN
(July/August 2008). The description of the NICU baby rescue draws on several sources, including the above article; a StoryCorps interview with Pamela Mathews, her husband Edwin “Roy” Mathews, and nurse Jo Lincks (interview MBX006447, March 18, 2010, archived in the Library of Congress’s Folklife reading room); photographs of the rescue taken by Memorial staff; Gershanik, Juan, “EVACUATE! My Katrina Experience,” fax dated December 27, 2005, with four-page story; Feiler, Alan, “God’s Hands in the World,”
Baltimore Jewish Times
, September 9, 2005; and on interviews with staff, including Dr. Gershanik.

 
22
Pilots from out of town
: Several USCG pilots interviewed by the author described the difficulty of locating Memorial, also reflected in unpublished USCG documents, including “Summary of Action for the Distinguished Flying Cross: LCDR SCOTT LANGUM,” covering August 28 to September 4, 2005. “LANGUM deftly navigated to the assigned position through the darkened obstacles, only to find the location of the hospital inaccurate. With no positive guidance, Lieutenant Commander LANGUM began a low level search over unlit wires, reading the signs on each building to locate the hospital.”