Friday, September 09, 2005

A Letter from New Orleans

My "little" sister is back in New Orleans, doing what she does best: helping people and, no doubt, saving lives. The text below is her most recent e-mail to family and friends, sent September 6, 2005. For those of you who don't know, she makes reference to being specialized in her medical field - she is a cancer surgeon - making emergency medical care a challenging task for her, but one she has readily stepped up to. My respect and admiration to her and all her colleagues at this time, as always before, but now even more so.

[Letter from the Good Doctor in New Orleans]

I can't thank you all enough for all of the love and support you have given me through all of this. I have been truly blessed, more than I thought I ever deserved. I could not have made it though this past week without all of your encouragement. Here is my update.

I returned back to Louisiana on the 2nd (thank you again Susan and your beautiful family for taking such great care of me during a VERY difficult time). I have been back at my hospital in New Orleans now for the past few days, relieving my partner who was here for 6 days through the worst of it, where I am staying 24 hours as we are not allowed to return to our homes. Arriving back here was the greatest sense of relief that I have felt in days. I must truly be a missionary doctor, because it was killing me to be away. When I imagined that I travel to other countries to care for their sick, and now the most needy were in my own city, it was very difficult to be away. Don't worry about safety, as here at the hospital it is simply not an issue. We are very well protected.

The hospital is in better shape than any other in town and only 2 others are opened. We got only some roof damage at the hospital but no flooding. The electricity and water were out for 48 hours during the storm so there is a lot of work to do to make it a fully functioning Hospital again, but we are able to add back day by day. We live everything, and every decision day to day now. Our emergency room is picking up, as initially they did not want to send patients here because they wanted them all out of the city. However, our hospital "Ochsner Clinic" is located on the border of Orleans and Jefferson Parish, and if you have been watching the news at all you know that Jefferson Parish residents were allowed back into the city temporarily today, so things are getting busier. And yes, there are many who never left and in Jefferson Parish do have some electricity and running water so they are unlikely to leave at all.

Tomorrow we are opening up clinic for any problems with patients from all of the specialties and we really don't know what to expect. We want people to know that we are here for them, so if they need help they will receive it. I do whatever I can to help out. Being so specialized as I am, in a crisis you learn a lot of new skills to help. I am now a pharmacy technician and have been filling hundreds of prescriptions every day, as I believe we are the only functioning pharmacy in town. The search and rescue workers come to us to renew their medicines.

I made it out of the hospital briefly today to go check on my house for the first time since the storm. I am truly blessed. Other than some branches in my yard and a screen from a window and a few shingles (no telling who those belong to) my house was absolutely fine. I cleaned out my fridge and freezer, with hardly any horrible stench. For all of you who have harassed me for years for having such an empty fridge, to you I say HA! It served me very well this past week.

We did see a lot of destruction from water in the city. Thousands of trees down. Very few people around. They are still evacuating slowly. I live in Orleans Parish which was the worst hit and the most severe water. I really wasn't supposed to be out, but a medical badge can get you a lot in a natural disaster. There were trucks and trucks of military troops, all armed, all over the city. I felt very safe (did I mention I was in a Land Rover, with another crazy female surgeon, with a Rotweiler in the back and a handgun in the glove box? No it wasn’t mine, but it was there, just in case!), as I'm sure the military and law enforcement outnumber civilians 10 to 1 now.

I will not be able to live in my house for awhile. How long? No one knows. Again, day by day. No electricity or water and a lot of work to be done in the city. On my days off from the hospital, I am to go to Baton Rouge. They will put us up in doctors’ homes there if we have no place to stay. I have a friend there who said I could stay with him, but unfortunately I haven't been able to reach him for 3 days now. I'll keep working on that. They say that the navy hospital ship with 1000 beds may dock on the river by Ochsner to house all of the employees so we can have a place to live without commuting and living in the hospital while we are here. Cruise lines have also volunteered their ships.

What will come of all of that and in what time frame, Who knows? Day by day. Right now I have a job I love, a place to sleep, 3 meals a day and all of you. What more could I ask for? I don't worry so much about tomorrow right now. I am so blessed for all I have today.

Am I going to leave New Orleans? Absolutely not. I had a deep love for this city and its people before all of this that was only strengthened by this unfortunate tragedy. I would never desert them now. I look forward to being part of the recovery of this amazing place. This past week has changed me, and all of us that live here, forever. I pray that it will continue to strengthen me and remind me and the rest of the world what is truly important in life. I ask you to continue to pray for this city and all of those taking care of us, and that you all will too appreciate how blessed you are and how precious life is.

Please read [Anne Rice’s] letter from yesterday's New York Times: “Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans?” It could not describe my feelings for New Orleans and this tragedy any more eloquently (yes Denise, I had to look up the spelling on that word).

I'm sure there is so much more to tell, but that will have to be it for now.

I'm tired and need some sleep.

Oh, one more thing, if any of you work for corporations (or you money bags out there) that can donate money, my employer has a Hurricane Relief Fund to support our employees who have lost their homes to try to provide them with housing and get them back here if possible and stabilize their jobs and lives. They have been absolutely amazing though all of this as an employer and I would love to see all of these great health care professionals who were not as fortunate as I was be able to come back and help heal this city and its people. A letter addressing this and providing the information is [inserted below]. Please pass this along if anyone asks how they can help.

I love you all. God Bless you all.

Good night and God Bless.

[Letter from Ochsner Hospital, New Orleans]

This is a sad and humbling day for the staff of the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, and for the people of our great city of New Orleans. We at Ochsner are grateful to report countless acts of courage, incredible dedication and generosity by our staff, patients and families, and the citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana and this wonderful country. What we have directly witnessed reaffirms our faith in humanity. It is unfortunate that the thoughtless acts of a few have diminished the great work of so many citizens from all walks of life.

Ochsner hospital remained open throughout this ordeal and continues to serve our community. The word written by employees with red garbage bags on the top of the parking deck for all to see speaks volumes: OPEN. This was our message to the city when all other communications failed.

This feat is the product of incredibly dedicated, talented and selfless employees. I am deeply grateful to be associated with such an extraordinary group of people.

Approximately 5,000 of our 7,000 employees are victims of Hurricane Katrina. Many of our people have severely damaged homes, or are completely homeless.

In response to many requests to offer support, Ochsner has instituted the Ochsner Clinic Foundation Hurricane Relief Fund to benefit our employees and organization, both of whom have both suffered greatly in this disaster. Donations can be made payable to Ochsner Clinic Foundation and specified for the Ochsner Hurricane Relief Fund at the following address:

Ochsner Clinic Foundation - Dept. #118
P.O. Box 4869
Houston, TX 77210-4869

Funds may also be wired to the following location:

Hibernia National Bank
5718 Westheimer, Suite 600
Houston, TX 77057

ABA #113024915
Account #0623336615
Reference: Ochsner Clinic Foundation Hurricane Relief

Ochsner is a 510(c)3 non-profit organization, founded on patient care, research and education. We are one of the country’s largest non–university based academic centers and directly care for patients throughout southeast Louisiana. We continue our mission, and will serve and rebuild New Orleans, with the help of our employees and our extended family.

Sincerely,
Patrick Quinlan, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Ochsner Clinic Foundation

1 comment:

Angela said...

I just finilized my application to the US Health and Human Services Departement and await my deployment info. You sister's words touched me in a way I am at a loss to describe, but my "calling" to help out the victims of this natural disaster is strengthened by her story. Denise, please tell you sister she is in my thoughts, and I hope to be able to help in any small way in the near future. We all need to do something. Denise, you have done your part by sharing your sister with the rest of the world.