The University of Texas health science institutions played a special and unique role in all of these activities. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, health professionals from all of our institutions participated in caring for evacuees, seeing patients at evacuation centers and in emergency rooms. When hospitalization was required, this was promptly accomplished. Abraham Verghese, Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSC-SA), wrote a particularly poignant description of his experiences in caring for evacuees.
As the devastation of Katrina began to recede, Hurricane Rita approached. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) developed a plan in collaboration with the leadership of Galveston four days before the hurricane’s predicted landfall. Subsequently, more than 700 patients were discharged and evacuated from UTMB hospitals and all students and non-essential personnel were released. Two days before the storm, UTMB discharged and evacuated the 427 patients remaining — including neonatal and intensive care patients, state prisoners, and others — within 12 hours. UTMB estimates that 91 ambulances, 32 helicopters, five airplanes and numerous public and school buses were involved in this first full evacuation in the institution’s 114-year history. Some 400 faculty and staff volunteered to remain in the hospital to provide emergency services and to preserve vital functions. Jack Stobo, UTMB President, Karen Sexton, Chief Executive Officer of UTMB Hospitals and Clinics (who served as Incident Commander) and the faculty and staff of UTMB performed heroically.
In the meantime, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center took appropriate steps to limit admissions and close clinics, but continued to operate as a hospital with special floodgates and to maintain a volunteer "ride-out" crew to care for over 400 hospitalized patients. This included over two dozen cancer patients transferred from UTMB. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, working with its partner, Memorial Hermann Hospital, carefully shut down vulnerable operations and implemented its emergency plans, including floodgates that had been constructed since the devastation to that institution by Tropical Storm Allison in 2000.
"At all of these institutions, the spirit of commitment to help people, whether local or evacuees, was remarkable."
Within 24 hours before landfall, this storm moved eastward and largely spared Galveston and Houston. However, in doing so it increased the risks at the 100-bed hospital of The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler. Thirty-one prisoners from the prison hospital at UTMB had been transferred to UTHC-Tyler. An additional 21 patients had been accepted from the small Woodville Hospital, which was in a flooded area. UTHC-Tyler provided care to more than 200 nursing home patients in a special needs shelter set up on the campus of Tyler Junior College. Assisted by 19 nurses from UTMB, and by a number of nurses recalled from retirement, Tyler was able to care for all of these patients through winds up to 55 mph and heavy rain.
Other institutions also mobilized to meet the threat. Patients, faculty and evacuees came to San Antonio and Dallas, where UTHSC-SA and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas provided care and support. Faculty and staff at these institutions and at The University of Texas at Austin volunteered to provide housing for displaced employees and faculty.
At all of these institutions, the spirit of commitment to help people, whether local or evacuees, was remarkable. Although power was lost at several sites and there was damage to some equipment and facilities, the institutions escaped major damage while continuing to care for patients. All of us can take pride in the leadership, organization, commitment, dedication and performance of the health science institutions.
Much of this spirit of taking care of others and of encouraging compassion in caregivers can be seen in the two articles featured in this issue. UTHSC-SA’s Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics whose director is physician and writer Abraham Verghese, mentioned above, has created a groundbreaking new curriculum that involves medical students in the humanities through the narratives of literature film and other works of art. Then, at UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Network’s Living Fully With Cancer conference, you’ll meet some unforgettable people who are managing to live quite well and even thrive after their diagnoses.
Whether we’re talking about regional emergencies or the diseases and difficulties of everyday life, one of the most important missions of The University of Texas System health institutions is to take care of others. I would like to salute these institutions for work well done and for their preparation and dedication to do whatever the future requires.
Best regards,
Dr. Kenneth I. Shine
Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
The University of Texas System
Dear Friend of the UT System,
