I believe it was Wednesday that the helicopters started coming in and landing/hovering on the roof. We began to ship patients off of the floor to the 6th floor/roof to be shipped out to the helicopters. We watched in awe as the Navy blackhawks hovered, lowered down baskets, and picked patients up. However, getting the patients up to the 6th floor via very small stairwells that smelled like rotting garbage (1st floor=stagnant water) and diesel fuel (to run the generators) was NOT FUN. Especially our 600 lb gastric bypass patients, hip fracture patient, ICU vent dependent patients, etc. It took 8-10 men working around the clock (Steven and Chuck were two of those men) to get those patients up. Plus, being dehydrated and exhausted was NO FUN.
Thursday, the staff was given some hope about going home. We were told that UHS (the company that owns Methodist Hospital) was going to be using their personal helicopters to rescue us, however, they could NOT take the visitors (the visitors were not of their concern?? I don't know.). That would mean, we would have to sneak out and not let the patient's visitors see. 100+ staff SNEAK OUT?? That would cause a riot. I cried and cried and knew it would never work.
I was right. Thursday night, we started to ship out some of the staff families that had small children with them. The visitors (which mind you, ELECTED TO STAY) found out about it, and started a screaming match and throwing things. I was sitting in the middle of the hall with my coworkers (who were in more need of sleep that me) watching all of this, listening, trying to protect my coworkers. The dialysis nurses came running down the hall and LOCKED themselves into the dialysis room. They made sure to tell me that if things got too bad, we could come and lock ourselves in too. I got a flashlight shined in my face and I could hear the visitors (the SAME VISITORS I GAVE MY PORTION OF WATER TO INSTEAD OF DRINKING IT MYSELF) say "there are those nurses. If we see them leave, I will stab them."
Yeah, we are in the middle of a hurricane emergency, and the family members are going to kill me instead. Fabulous.
I woke my coworkers up and we all cried. The "rock" of the group, Belinda (who had kept ME strong) cried. I asked her to pray, and she said she didn't have the strength. So I prayed. I prayed for God's wisdom, protection, grace and peace. That's all I could think of.
Larry Graham, our COO of our hospital, came down and tried to calm everyone down. One visitor pulled his arm back to hit Larry, and the police restrained him. There were screams and cries from the visitors. Cries that I could understand. "I haven't seen my husband since he was rescued. I don't know where he is. You are keeping me from finding him." "I want to see my kids." Etc... One family member (a wife of a patient that needed to get airlifted off) didn't want him to go without her (that was the price to pay...patients first, then families). I told her under marshal law, he HAD TO GO BECAUSE HE WAS A PATIENT AND HE WAS UNDER OUR CARE. He tried to stay, gave excuses, etc. The wife finally said, "go. just go. if they want to TORTURE US and HURT US, let them."
Oh My God. I just sacrificed SEVEN days for these patients. Did my best to care for patients. Sacrificed sleep, food, water, MY personal food, toileting, etc for this woman and her husband. Now I'm TORTURING HER? What about me? My family doesn't know I'm alive...at least you HAVE your family. At least your husband is BEING RESCUED. I don't know if I'll be rescued. What about that????
I told her all of this, and she had the nerve to scream at me to tell me "don't raise your voice to me. give me the RESPECT I GIVE YOU!!!"
This so broke my spirit. Made me wonder if I was even in the right profession. Did anything I had done this past week matter?
Moving on.
After the riot on Thursday night/early morning, I got ONE hour of sleep in the chair in the middle of the hallway. Friday, we managed to ship all of the visitors out. The patient that we made a DNR died on the floor before we got him moved, so we shipped him to the second floor "morgue". Friday was our salvation day. We were getting rescued.
We all wanted to go somewhere other than Moisant airport. We had heard about rapings, killings, etc there. We just wanted to be safe. We all got moved to the roof, where we waited for our rides. We clapped, cheered, had group prayer and took lots of pictures.
On the roof. Waiting in line for transport elsewhere.
Happy smiles. (The Dream Team) There were COLD COKES and COLD WATER waiting for us on the roof!!!!
Chuck and Mrs. Waddell
Me and Chuck. I was so dirty for 5 days that my face broke out. My hair was SO greasy.
Dr. Morock and Mrs. Waddell
Pete
From the roof
More relief
A worn out Steve
Mrs. Beck (our CNO)
One of the rescue helicopters
Here comes MY ride!!
Goodbye Methodist
In the sky. (all that land WAS viable land. there were houses there)
We were taken to Northshore Regional Medical Center in Slidell, LA (where there was NO WATER). They fed us MRE's (our first hot meal in 5 days), gave us all the water we wanted, put us in A/C (generators ran the a/c) and let us shower. I was then shipped to Dallas via bus provided by UHS.
I am staying with Thomas and his brother in Roanoke/Denton (close to Dallas).
My best friend Heather is sending me clothes from Lane Bryant and money. All I have with me is what I brought to Methodist (some undies, scrubs, bras and pajama type clothing.). I need "normal" clothes to go to the store in and out to eat...etc.
I just want away from the sights and sounds of New Orleans for awhile. I will be in the Dallas area for 2 weeks. Tomorrow I make a claim on my Explorer, try to find a job (I want to do travel nursing here in Dallas...hopefully work at Baylor in Grapevine. Anyone that knows of travel agencies that provide cars/living arrangements/insurance, let me know). My health insurance runs out on the 30th of this month. I will be calling UHS to see what they can help me with. Maybe one day, MAYBE, I can go back to New Orleans. Maybe my coworkers with do the same.
I miss them so much. Those are the people that mean the most to me. I saw them sweat, bleed, cry, pray, pour their souls out. I hate that some of them I will never see again. They are gone, Methodist is gone, New Orleans is gone.
I still cry every night thinking of what could have happened, what did happen and what is going to happen. I'm unemployed, have no car...don't know where I am going. However, I am here.
I'm alive.
Thank you for reading. I will be posting more as I find out. This was my story.
I appreciate all of the well wishes, prayers, concerns, etc. I will be setting up a PO Box for snail mail, etc.
Please continue praying for us, my coworkers, my patients and New Orleans. Any help is some help.
I love you all.
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