Hurricane Ike Update #16

Saturday, September 13, 2008, 11:03pm

So, we ventured down to the first floor today, and there was standing water everywhere on the first floor of the hospital (see pictures). It's nasty. We even tried to escape out to the courtyard to check out the destruction, but we got yelled at. Everyone wants to get out and check out their homes and try to minimize the water damage, but Galveston is still under curfew and they are not letting anyone leave the hospital. One of my fellow residents snuck out to visit her apartment, which, unfortunately, had quite a bit of damage, with water lines at 3 feet and her furniture destroyed and all over the place. Apparently my street flooded up to 7 feet high, but since I'm on the second floor, I'm hoping there was minimal damage. However, a good portion of the island is still flooded, including the west end, and the strand (Historic District). I know there was about 15 feet of standing water at some point in the strand. The fires are still continuing. The only people that are being allowed to drive onto the island are emergency personnel.

So far there have been about 16 patients in the ER, still nothing surgical. However, since we have no running water, minimal power, and no surgical suites, we are fixing people up and sending them to other facilites. Honestly, we are in no way capable of handling patients at this point. The search and rescue helicopters are taking people directly to the mainland for treatment. They have found only a few dead so far on Galveston Island, but there have been a couple apartment buildings that collapsed, and there hasn't been much investigation into them yet. There have also been 22 (I think) found dead on Bolivar Island so far; they got hit pretty hard as well. Even if patients do need surgical intervention, we have been instructed that we are unable to do surgery on them, and we are not even going to be suturing closed lacerations due to the high risk of infection from the nasty bay water.

The hospital is starting to stink....big time. The sewage water is still in the basement, combined with the heat, toilets full of poop, and sweaty personnel...it's gross.

As far as being relieved....one of the residents had a discussion with some hospital administrators today, and they said that they are expecting to use the same staff until Thursday. The thing is, no one is being allowed to come onto the island, and even if SOMEHOW they recruited some surgery residents to get back on the island, they are going to have to deal with their own homes and property damage. It is starting to look grim as far as getting out of here anytime soon.

In addition, there are several attendings that are predicting it's going to be weeks before the hospital is up and running again. They have to come in and clean out all the flooding, and everything in the Operating Rooms has to be tested (since it got all wet and had to be evacuated), which could take a long time with 26 ORs. We have gotten no word as to what we're going to be doing (as far as residency) until then.

Thanks again for all the comments. I can't believe my blog has gotten around the country! I only hope that my blog can provide some education for everyone in the "outside world."

Oh, I know a lot of people have asked me about specific doctors and homes here on the island. Honestly, I cannot comment on these right now. I have not been out of the hospital, and if I am allowed to leave at some point, it will be to go home and sort out my own business and get more supplies, and come back. But, once everything has settled down, I do plan on riding my bike around the island and taking lots of pictures of the destruction.

If anyone has any specific questions, please post them, and I will do my best to answer in my next blogging.

More tomorrow.