A nurse blogs about her experiences in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast

“We created an area just to treat wound care. We had diabetics who had waded through muddy water to get evacuated out, others with cellulitis (bites received while walking through the waters), and people with surgical wounds that were becoming infected. We even had 1 person who was 2-day discharge following a coronary artery bypass procedure. We transported 3 people on Methadone programs who hadn’t had meds; a baby who was trached and on a home ventilator; 5+ people who needed dialysis; 3 women in labor; a couple of people with chest pains, and several nursing home residents. After I say that, you need to understand that we had no system for this. We had to find and orchestrate this with what resources we had. Communication was unreliable and conflicting at times.”