The chief of trauma surgery at Big Charity Hospital, Dr. Norman McSwain, told his harrowing story of patients and staff left to die in a hospital without electricity or re-supply in an article published 9/9/2005. Read the whole thing. Some excerpts What Dr. McSwain described...was a slow descent into chaos. The more desperate the situation became, he said, the harder it was to reach anyone in authority... "Nobody was in charge," he said. "I guarantee you that. I'd call the governor's office, and either they didn't answer the telephone or I'd talk to lower functionaries, and they'd say: 'The governor's too busy to talk. We'll relay the message.'" Making matters worse, he said, someone from the state health department announced that Charity had already been emptied, when in fact 250 patients and 1,000 staff members were inside...He was finally able to appeal to HCA, the company that runs Tulane University Hospital, across the street. HCA had hired 20 medical evacuation helicopters, which were landing on the Tulane hospital's parking garage. "They said, "We're not going to leave you down there," Dr. McSwain said of company executives. "I have nothing but praise for them." |