Rock Hill, S.C., Hospital Receives 2 Patients From New Orleans
Sep. 2–A Rock Hill hospital received two critically ill patients Thursday from a New Orleans-area hospital forced to evacuate following Hurricane Katrina.
“They have suffered heavy water and wind damage and are running out of fuel for generators,” said Myra Joines, spokeswoman for Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill.
The patients were flown to Rock Hill on Thursday afternoon from Kenner Regional Medical Center near New Orleans, Joines said. Piedmont was asked to help because both hospitals are owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., which also owns hospitals in Mount Pleasant and Hilton Head.
Other South Carolina hospital employees are preparing to help hurricane victims as well — by receiving them here or traveling to where they are.
Patti Smoake of the S.C. Hospital Association said it has been deluged with calls and e-mails from 100 member hospitals who “want to do something.”
Hospitals are informing federal officials how many patients they could take in if requested. Palmetto Health Richland, for example, could provide specialized care for infants in its neonatal intensive care unit.
Dorn VA Medical Center might be asked to receive as many as 27 sick veterans.
Plans call for moving patients from VA hospitals in New Orleans and from Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss., to hospitals in Atlanta and in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Ala. Those hospitals might have to send patients to Dorn to make room for the evacuees, Dorn spokeswoman Priscilla Creamer said.
Also, she said, two VA policemen at Dorn are leaving today for service in the Gulf region.
Greenville Hospital System was asking staffers if they want to volunteer to help in federal medical shelters being set up in the Gulf states.
“We have a number of people who are willing to go if they are needed,” said Suzanne White, vice president for patient care and nursing services.
Dr. Steve Shelton, an emergency physician at Richland, leads a state urban search and rescue team. It might be called into service anytime, he said Thursday.
The team is trained to find and rescue people. But realistically, Shelton said, its mission at this point probably would be to locate bodies.
Staff writer Chuck Crumbo contributed to this story.
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