ESP Assists with Hurricane Ike Disaster Relief

Hurricane Ike brought with it gusts of wind and a torrent of rain that affected several of ESP's hospital emergency departments. St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston was consumed with assisting those in need. It became evident Saturday afternoon that St. Joseph's was up and running with power and close to a major refugee shelter. Most importantly, all the hospitals in the southern part of Houston/Galveston area were shut down and the patients were driving north into Houston to seek medical care.

The ED patient volume continued to increase as our regular staff was becoming exhausted. Within eight hours, Houston had extra help coming in to relieve the regular staff. Clinical Coordinators Jan Mondik, RN and Mark Wilson, FNP drove down late Saturday night and stayed 24 hours to assist. The following doctors also picked up shift(s): Bruce Moskow, MD, Oliver Fannin, MD (who also brought barbeque), Bethany Lyon, MD, Heidi Knowles, MD, Julie Moy, MD, and Eric Schroeder, MD.

Many other hospitals took in refugees. Seton Medical Center-Austin, Seton Northwest Hospital, Seton Southwest Hospital, and Brackenridge all geared up and accepted extra patients with additional physician staff and kept the Urgent Care Center open 24 hours a day. Dr. Sam Roberts, Dr. Dennis Watts and Dr. Tad McReynolds helped process the incoming transfers that arrived at SMC from UTMB. On Saturday mid-day, they realized they had enough resources to handle the extra volume, so some staff were put on stand-by.

UTMB Galveston transferred many of their prisoner patients to the infirmaries in the five prison units around Palestine. The Palestine ED and the waiting room were full with people camping out, but the ED was keeping up their usual times and numbers. The big problem in Palestine during the storm was that many of the gas stations were closed after running out of gasoline and the grocery store shelves were pretty bare.

Grimes St. Joseph in Navasota lost electricity and was having trouble with the generators so they evacuated their patients. An evacuee from Houston almost had her baby there but was transferred to Bryan. Dr. Mabry went with her by ambulance and they made it there fine. Two other doctors covered the ED while Dr. Mabry was gone and the hospital was finally able to get the generators up and running in the ED. Madison St. Joseph and Burleson St. Joseph both lost electricity, too.

ESP physicians and staff pitched in and worked over 200 additional hours during Hurricane Ike to help support the existing staff. It takes a lot of extra dedication and compassion and was really appreciated by all the refugees and staff.

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