Maine Health Workers Leave for Gulf Region
After more than a week of waiting, Maine health care workers are being called up by the dozens to aid hurricane victims along the Gulf Coast.
Maria Cushing of Portland was among the 10 certified nursing assistants and medical assistants who left Tuesday to work at a temporary medical facility an hour from New Orleans.
Cushing, who cares for pulmonary patients at Maine Medical Center, said she will help doctors and nurses, take vital signs and comfort people displaced since Hurricane Katrina hit two weeks ago. A native of hurricane-magnet Cape Verde, Cushing knows what it is like to see a flood crush one’s hometown, uprooting houses and killing neighbors.
"It is so hard just to watch," said Cushing as she prepared to board a 6:30 a.m. flight at Portland International Jetport. "I feel somebody needs to do something, that we need to help."
MANY MORE VOLUNTEERED
Cushing left with three other CNAs from Maine Med. On separate flights Tuesday were volunteers from Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Knox Center for Long-term Care in Rockland and Goodall Hospital in Sanford.
The group is the first major contingent of civilian health workers from Maine. Eleven members of the Air National Guard traveled to Mississippi on Sunday to provide public health education on issues such as water contamination, according to the state.
Other health professionals have headed south to work with the American Red Cross.
Up to 300 more health care workers have volunteered their services on a Web-based registry established by the Maine Emergency Management Agency and state Bureau of Health.
It is not clear whether more health professionals from Maine will be needed, but the state will be ready with a list of volunteers ranging from doctors to veterinarians and information technology specialists.
"Assistance may be necessary for many months," said Kris Perkins, the bureau’s public health preparedness coordinator. "As situations change, the type of volunteers that might be necessary would vary. "
The volunteers who departed Tuesday were the state’s response to an e-mail request for assistance from the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which provides mutual aid among states. Initial requests were directed at health care workers in states closer to the Gulf Coast.
All 10 volunteers will work in the city of Thibodaux for the next week, according to Lynette Miller of the Maine Emergency Management Agency. A medical facility has been set up there for patients with disabilities and other special needs.
"When people go down as a team, they have their own support systems, which is a good thing when you’re working in those difficult situations," Miller said.
Final clearance for deployment from MEMA came Sunday, and the volunteers were asked to be ready to leave within 24 hours.
‘WHAT CAN I DO?’
The volunteers were to be taken to Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, which is already housing more than 1,000 evacuees from the Louisiana coast. Joseph Makonnen, a CNA from the psychiatry ward of Maine Med, said his 8-year-old son is proud that he is helping with relief efforts. The boy, who has heart problems, inspired him to enter the health care field after emigrating from Ethiopia in 1987, he said.
"After watching the news like everybody else, I felt heartbroken," Makonnen said. "I said, ‘What can I do? What can I do?"
Maine Med will continue to compensate him while he is gone. The hospital also made sure the volunteers had updated shots for tetanus and Hepatitis B.
Eastern Maine Medical Center also packed up medication for the volunteers, including anti-diarrheal medicines and oral antibiotics, food and water.
Cushing, though, made sure to bring her own supplies, including 20 bottles of water, 5 cans of tuna and two boxes of crackers.
"Anything is possible," she said.
Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:
jhuang@pressherald.com