Ham radio operators tune in hurricane help

[applegrove]

Ham radio operators tune in hurricane help

By Barbara W. Carlson | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

"NEWINGTON, CONN. – Richard Webb, an amateur radio operator, was asleep on his air mattress at University Hospital in New Orleans during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina when he was awakened at 5 a.m. by a hospital administrator.
As Mr. Webb tells it, "He told me we had a lady who was in labor, who had swum five blocks in that dirty, nasty water to the hospital because she saw lights there - people with flashlights moving around." Medical personnel said the baby needed to be delivered by caesarean section. But the hospital had limited power, no running water, no way to sterilize instruments, no way to perform such surgery. "We figured we had two hours to get her medevacked out of there" before the lives of mother and child would be in danger. "So I got on the radio and was talking to a fellow who was with the Coast Guard auxiliary in Cleveland, Ohio. I was working with him to arrange a medevac."

Choppers did arrive in time, Webb says. The woman and another patient in need were evacuated successfully. Because the hospital had no landing pad, the two had to be lifted out in baskets lowered from the helicopters.


....Snip"

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0915/p12s02-stss.html

[mirandapriestly]

1. That poor lady! I can't imagine going through that

"swum five blocks". I'm glad she is ok

[applegrove]

2. Oh - I didn't read it all the way through. I thought it might be a pick-me

-up happy ending story. We need those.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. On a local level during disaster drills -- ham operators

are an important part of the drill.

Thanks for posting this story -- nice to read a happy ending.

[applegrove]

4. Thank god.