WHY ARE HOSP. PATIENTS BEING TAKEN TO THE DOME?

[MoonRiver]

Why aren't they being medivaced to hospitals outside NO????????????
The Superdome is surrounded by water and water is rising all over NO!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE????????????????
:argh:

[madeline_con]

1. Riots in the dome not far off...

IMO....

[NYC]

6. The Superdome people have been let out for fresh air.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1737386

There's no air conditioning in the Superdome. Last I heard there was limited lighting from the generator.

[johnnie]

2. I can't answer that but..

I am guessing that they know better as to what the situation is than we do. I don't think they are going to do anything irrational. I'm sure they have there reasons.

[MoonRiver]

7. Well, you have a lot more confidence in the powers that be than I.

Personally, I'd rather be medivaced to another hospital with facilities to take care of me than a ticking time bomb.

[The empressof all]

3. It may be a quick fix to remove them from immediate danger

They may want to move as many folks out of there quickly so they are transporting shorter distance to make more trips. I think there is a major problem with getting enough appropriate equipment (amphibians and helicopters) in there as surrounding area is destroyed. Also I would imagine fueling vehicles up is a logistical challenge.

[KeepItReal]

4. They are starting to evacuate some patients to Baton Rouge

Heard on the news.

[MoonRiver]

10. That's great! We need for surrounding states and communities that

were not affected by Katrina to pitch in here, as in providing helicopters and hospital space.

[Horse with no Name]

12. It's not nearly as easy as it sounds

Most of these patients in ICU that will be transported will more than likely become unstable in the transport if they aren't already from lack of resources.
You have to find accepting hospitals that have beds first.
Then you have to find accepting hospitals that have the staff.
Each of these patients will probably be on a 1:1 nurse/patient ratio because of the transport conditions, so you will have to find hospitals that have at least one available nurse for each incoming patient.
That is a very hard thing to do, unfortunately, and you won't have many hospitals lining up for liability like that unless they have ready resources.

A couple of years ago I worked in an outlying hospital that didn't have a pediatric ICU. It was during a busy RSV season and there wasn't ONE pediatric ICU bed available in all of Texas or the surrounding states.
We had a kid crash and the hospital didn't have a pedi ventilator available.
We bagged this kid, gave him breathing treatments from 2 in the morning until a bed opened in Shreveport at 9. Shot him full of adrenaline. His mother was BEGGING us to do something for him because he couldn't breathe.
For 7 hours this kid was close to dying and we couldn't find a hospital to accept him because they either didn't have the staff or the bed available. There were 2 highly regarded pediatric ICU's within 15 minutes of us. The kid arrived in Shreveport many hours later at noon.
It's truly not as easy as just dropping these patients at the door of a hospital.:(

[MadHound]

5. I can think of several reasons

Hospitals are all below sea level, they are going to flood badly. The Superdome actuall sits above sea level, and won't be flooding as badly, if at all. In addition, the Superdome has nineteen stories that people can move up, most hospitals only have ten or so.

As far as medevac helicopters, they are all probably busy with rescues in the field and other such lifesaving work. In addition, the roofs of the hospitals(where most helipads are) could very well be gone. The Superdome probably still has a place for a copter to land.

Plus, the Superdome is quite sturdy, and has emergency electrical going, vital for people on various kinds of medical equipment.

I actually think that this is a very good idea on the part of NO officials. Leaving people in hospitals while water is rising is not a good idea.

[meganmonkey]

9. Except for the fact that the dome is filthy, no plumbing, human waste

overflowing...

Not trying to imply that I have a better idea, I just worry about the fact that people who are already ill and weak are going to be taken to a place where they will be exposed to these conditions.

This is horrible.

:cry:

[MadHound]

11. Well yeah, there is that,

But I imagine that your description fits virtually all of the devastated area buildings, including the hospitals.

Save lifes first, worry about other things later when you can. I would rather see somebody come out of there filthy, dirty and alive than not come out at all.

I'm sure that this wasn't the hospitals' first option, but given the conditions down there, it is probably their last viable option. Water is rising quickly, and you just can't let patients fend for themselves.

[Horse with no Name]

8. Could be several reasons

This is the busiest part of a trauma season and many of the hospitals that could take these patients may already be overloaded.
I think Tulane alone had 90 ICU patients.
No idea how many the others had--but probably at least half of that.
Most of the helicopters will only hold 1 patient safely--they could probably do 2.
There simply aren't that many medivac helicopters available in this part of the country to transport that many patients over that big of distance. They would have to have the big military transport helicopters--but they are all in Iraq.
Houston, Galveston, Shreveport, Tyler, Longview, Little Rock and Texarkana would probably be the safest and closest destinations that aren't dealing with hurricane aftermath of their own. At very best...it would take 24 or more hours to get these patients out.
They don't have that kind of time.
My guess is that they will take them to the Superdome and get them safe and then start evacuating.
There aren't alot of options available in these types of circumstances and unfortunately most of them suck. You just have to pick the solution that sucks the least.

[markus]

13. If you have a few hundred spare helicopters, by all means send them

For now, they have to evacuate thousands of patients from numerous hospitals all over the city. This will take time.

Moving them to the Dome and setting up a huge field hospital, then triaging out the worst first makes sense

[MoonRiver]

15. Hospitals with helicopters are all over this country, including

areas close to NO. They should be pitching in to take these patients. IMHO.

[Horse with no Name]

17. There are so many logistical problems as to why they aren't

:(I totally agree with the sentiment but the practicality of it supercedes it.
The airports are under water in NO.
Most hospitals that fly to get patients that far used fixed wing aircraft. But there isn't any way to land them.
Helicopters in this situation are limited. You can't pull the helicopters out of the cities they serve.
Those cities still have emergencies that they have to use their medical resources. You can't abandon one population of people for another. You just can't.
This is a nightmare. I fear that there isn't going to be a solution for it. I understand that and the reasons why, but I still hate it.

[MoonRiver]

19. I get what you're saying. But this country needs better resources

and intelligent planning to address these disasters.

[Horse with no Name]

21. We have the resources.

They are in Iraq though and useless to us.:(

[mountainvue]

14. The Superdome needs to be

evacuated. My god.

[Tyranny_R_US]

16. Who is the asshole making these decisions?

[MoonRiver]

18. I don't know, but clearly contingency plans were not made ahead of time.

This is crazy. NO has known for decades that such a disaster was a very real danger. Plus, they had a few days ahead of the imminent disaster to get their ducks in a row. Where were FEMA, the Red Cross, the pResident (OK, never mind), any intelligent life forms with the ability to allocate resources?

[Horse with no Name]

20. The truth is

the manpower and machines we need to pull this off are in Iraq.
That is the sad truth. That is why you aren't hearing it on MSM.
It reflects on GWB and again.
Forget about fighting the Islamic terrorist enemy on our soil...our people are dying from natural disasters while we chase boogeymen and steal oil on the other side of the world.
We are our own worst enemy it seems.

[MoonRiver]

22. You hit the nail on the head.

(Some) Democrats and Repubs have been screaming about this for awhile now. We can't defend the homeland against terrorism OR natural disasters if our resources are elsewhere.

[AlGore-08.com]

23. The Superdome is being used as a staging area

When conditions are worse than the superdome (like a hospital is about to lose its electricity due to flooding), the superdome is where they take the less critical patients.

At this point it's all about prioritizing resources. If you have a helicopter, is it better use of it rescue somebody who will drown in the next hour if you don't airlift them out of their attic and take them to the superdome, or to medivac somebody who is uncomfortable but is not in danger of losing their life to a hospital hours away? You do the first, obviously. And that's what the city, state and federal agencies are doing right now.

FEMA and the National Guard are already working on a better solution for the patients, because of the crowding, the hygiene and the difficulties for the doctors. I suspect that they will end up either using National Guard barracks in one of the Gulf States, or have to erect temporary shelters - - refugee camps! - - outside the danger zone.