Health Science Center Family Steps Up
to Help Hurricane Katrina Survivors

Thousands of faculty, staff, students and friends give tremendous volunteer response
to care for survivors

In about two weeks, an estimated 6,000 UT Health Science Center at Houston volunteers – faculty, staff, students and friends – cared for hurricane survivors who made an estimated 11,000 patient visits to the George R. Brown Convention Center Clinic.

Michael D. McKinney, M.D., takes a young patient in hand for medical assessment at the UT-led clinic for survivors at the George R. Brown Convention Center. McKinney, who is senior executive vice president and chief operating officer at the UT Health Science Center at Houston, organized the clinic with other UT leaders at the request of City of Houston Mayor Bill White. Photo by Shannon Rasp

The UT-led clinic operation was created Sept. 2 at the request of City of Houston Mayor Bill White. And this was only one of the ways in which the university responded to the enormous needs of our Louisiana neighbors following Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall Aug. 29.

In a communication issued on Labor Day, Sept. 5, to all UT Health Science Center personnel, President James T. Willerson, M.D., said he has never been prouder of the faculty, staff and students he leads, acknowledging their efforts at the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown clinic, at the Astrodome and elsewhere in response to the disaster. “This response has been tremendous,” he said.

UT volunteers worked in various parts of the city, serving meals at the Astrodome, sorting food at the Houston Food Bank, and elsewhere. The generous campus community donated more than $10,000 in cash and two truck loads of food to a health science center People and Pets Food Drive that benefited human and animal survivors of the hurricane.

Organizers said all kinds of volunteers came to help at the convention center clinic – medical personnel, lay volunteers, friends of the university, strangers from out of town, all donating their time over the holiday weekend and into the following week.

Heart-Wrenching and Heart-Warming

Comparing the operation to a MASH unit, Michael D. McKinney, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief operating officer at the UT Health Science Center at Houston, described the scene, “It’s heartwrenching to see these individuals whose lives have changed so dramatically, and it’s heart-warming to see the work of so many volunteers – medical professionals and lay volunteers – working together.”

Two lay volunteers came from as far away as Minneapolis to help, one of whom purchased $2,000 in office supplies for the clinic command center. Physicians and nurses also traveled some distance to help, some coming with carloads of medical supplies. As of press time, a nurse emailed to say she was on her way with some friends, traveling to Houston from Kauai, Hawaii. Local companies delivered cartons of medical supplies, and churches dispatched volunteers with food, clothing and toys.

Mary desVignes-Kendrick, M.D., left, deputy director of the UT School of Public Health’s Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness, discusses public health needs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with Maureen Balleza, national news reporter for the New York Times. Photo by Ester Fant

“We have a wonderful group of medical personnel who are not just from Houston or from Texas, but from all over the country,” said Michael Bungo, M.D., associate dean for Harris County programs at the UT Medical School at Houston and chief of staff at LBJ Hospital. “We’ve had an outpouring of volunteerism. From a health-care standpoint, we’re meeting immediate needs, but this is going to be a long-term effort.”

Memorial Hermann Healthcare System collaborated with the health science center to offer a web-based volunteer scheduling system that greatly improved efficiency. Numerous Texas Medical Center institutions and other hospitals and clinics provided volunteers and supplies.

Clinic services included mental health, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology and trauma. A pharmacy and lab also were available, along with some emergency care.

The UT Dental Branch’s mobile dental van also cared for patients in the convention center clinic. Tracey Godwin, D.D.S., coordinator of the dental van relief efforts, reported a steady flow of patients – many of whom had severe toothaches and abscesses, and quite a few who lost their dentures in the storm.

Cot Surveys

Kristy Lillibridge, D.V.M., assistant professor of epidemiology at the UT School of Public Health, coordinated volunteer students, faculty and staff at Reliant Center and the George R. Brown Convention Center in conducting needs assessments that she called “cot surveys,” because Student Epidemiology Intelligence Society (SEIS) volunteers were going from cot to cot in the temporary housing area, surveying physical and mental needs of evacuees.

Reporting on our UT Response

Katrina Response & Relief Web site

To provide current and comprehensive information about the many ways in which The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is responding to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Office of Public Affairs launched a Katrina Response & Relief Web site Sept. 1. As of press time, Public Affairs staff also continue their efforts to gather information, tell various stories, recruit and recognize volunteers, and keep university personnel and friends informed through the university’s Web site and other communications. As a major national news story, efforts to care for thousands of displaced residents, as well as college students from Louisiana and Mississippi, placed almost round-the-clock demands on members of the news media and, by extension, on the Public Affairs media relations staff members, who assist the media in scheduling interviews and obtaining additional accurate information and pictures.

By Sept. 6, the School of Public Health and SEIS already had assessed more than 3,000 evacuees. Mary desVignes-Kendrick, M.D., deputy director of the UT School of Public Health’s Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness, said the rapid needs assessments were important for two major reasons.

“The number one priority is monitoring public health needs, and the number two is establishing a human connection. If there is anyone who wants to talk, they’re talking,” said desVignes-Kendrick.

That human connection was very evident among all the volunteers. For example, UT Volunteer Coordinator Lou Ann McKinney made sure that all volunteers greeting patients at the GRB clinic smiled, said, “Welcome to Houston,” offered water and snacks, and addressed whatever was needed. Some volunteers went to work holding babies or entertaining small children while their parents received medical attention.

McKinney also mentioned to Nikki and The Rev. Dr. Douglas Richnow, associate rector, St. John the Divine Church, and parishioner Howard Castleberry that the children’s play area at the George R. Brown Convention Center clinic could use a television. Within three hours, the two men returned with a bigscreen TV, a DVD player and lots of DVD’s for the children – a gift from that church.

Truly Blessed

Mike Wells, immediate past president of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and a member of the UT Health Science Center Development Board, was there along with other volunteers from the rodeo. “After what I have seen at the UT Health Science Center’s clinic, I know how truly blessed I am to be in a position to offer help of any kind,” Wells said.

The Frontlines

Scott Lillibridge, M.D., director of the school’s Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness, and other faculty members briefed Texas Commissioner of State Health Services Eduardo J. Sanchez, M.D., and staff from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arriving in Houston to help local authorities.

Other faculty members were on the scene in New Orleans. Richard Bradley, M.D., was deployed to the disaster area to assist in rescues and to provide urgent medical care. Bradley is clinical associate professor of emergency medicine at the UT Medical School and medical director of the Emergency Center at LBJ Hospital in Houston. He is assigned to the elite Texas Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue team, which operates under the authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.