The Pou Story: Lessons from Katrina
Emergency Management Alert, January 8, 2008
It sounds like fodder for a movie: A hurricane hits a hospital and there is no electric power, no fresh water, a flooded first floor, a nonfunctional sanitation system, and an interior temperature above 100°F. Patients cry for water and assistance, a beleagured medical staff appeals for-and does not receive-immediate help, a doctor is accused of murder.
But, as we all know, it's a real-life story. This month, the New England Journal of Medicine offers a full-text version of the article, "Dr. Pou and the Hurricane - Implications for Patient Care During Disasters," by Susan Okie, MD. A bracing account of the events at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it details the controversy surrounding Anna Maria Pou, a cancer surgeon on the faculty of Louisiana State University School of Medicine, who supervised post-storm medical operations.
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