Hospitals are struggling in New Orleans

“The lights are down, which means that medication must be rushed through sodden hallways by flashlight after dark. The ventilators are down, which meant that, for a while, nurses had to pump the airbags of pulmonary cases by hand.

There are few phones. No x-ray machines. No CAT scans. No computers. No air-conditioners.

The lab is down, which means that if a patient has an infection, physicians must determine how serious it is by using their sense of smell.

‘In a lot of ways, we’re functioning as if we were in a developing country at this point,’ said Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke, a physician at the hospital, reached yesterday on one of its few working land lines. ‘We’re doing the best we can, but it’s a new experience.'”