Health Care Limited but Ready for N.O. Residents

By AMY FORLITI

NEW ORLEANS – After riding out Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans without serious incident, Steve Lawson tripped over his own feet on the stairs of his French Quarter home last week and was knocked unconscious 13 steps below.

He came to not long afterward but was confused and disoriented. He awoke the next morning with ringing in his ears and knew it was time to get medical help.

At his employer’s suggestion, he went to Touro Infirmary’s emergency room, about a 10-minute drive from his home. There are at least three hospitals closer to the French Quarter, but they were all closed because of storm damage.

Ultimately, he learned he was OK.

“It’s a good thing I have a hard head,” the 41-year-old said while sitting on his ER bed. “Where do you go for medical care? If there was nothing open or nothing close by, I probably wouldn’t go in” to a hospital, he said.

After the storm, New Orleans lost more than 3,000 acute-care hospital beds, and nearby St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes lost roughly 1,000. The three parishes had more than 5,300 such beds before Katrina.

Last week, state officials said New Orleans’ two public hospitals – Charity and University – should be torn down because damage from the storm left them “dangerous, dangerous places.”

But with temporary facilities in place, the opening of some clinics and emergency rooms, and three hospitals operating in Jefferson Parish, the city says it is ready to deal with a host of ills, including injuries caused by power tools, debris and falls from roofs.

“We think, medically, we are certainly prepared for the re- entry,” said Dr. Kevin U. Stephens, director of the city Health Department. To residents, he said: “Have no fear.”

New Orleans residents are being allowed to return but are being advised to enter at their own risk.

While the biggest hospitals are closed, New Orleans has clinics open in addition to the ER at Touro. The city’s 911 service works, and public and private ambulances are running.

“Most of what’s coming is unintentional injuries – people slipping and falling, getting cut on glass,” Stephens said. “Don’t get on roofs and that kind of stuff. Don’t get overaggressive. Hire professionals to do work and be careful when driving.”

Also, on Wednesday, LSU unveiled mobile hospital units that will provide public health care in New Orleans while a larger, modular hospital is built. The units are next to the uninhabitable University Hospital.

They feature an emergency room, intensive-care units, a laboratory, radiology department and surgeons. Similar units treat wounded soldiers on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.