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Out of the Storm PAGE 1

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LSU reopened University Hospital, including its new trauma center, helping to provide care for the uninsured. Reportedly, LSU plans to build a new hospital emphasizing teaching and research and hopes to partner with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to share some resources when a new V.A. facility is complete. (The Times-Picayune).

Nearby Tulane University Hospital and Clinic also suffered flooding but reopened in February 2006 and currently has 90 fewer beds than pre-Katrina. Tulane’s facilities also include an Uptown outpatient clinic and Tulane-Lakeside Hospital in the suburb of Metairie.

With the closure of Charity, hospitals such as Touro, Ochsner, West Jefferson, and East Jefferson stepped in to provide care for uninsured patients after the storm. The state is in the process of reimbursing these hospitals as it considers a permanent redesign of the Louisiana health-care system. The legislative debate continues over whether to rebuild the charity system or to use those funds for government-financed private insurance policies. (The Times-Picayune).

Meanwhile, grass roots-efforts like the Common Ground Health Clinic (www.commongroundrelief.org) developed soon after Katrina to help meet basic needs. This particular program has grown substantially from its humble beginnings involving volunteer physicians from all over the U.S. Recently, it further solidified its presence in the city’s devastated Lower 9th Ward by opening a health clinic in a house. (New Orleans CityBusiness, March 1, 2007).

New opportunities will likely grow out of Ochsner’s recent expansion and purchase of three hospitals—one in Uptown New Orleans, another on the West Bank, and a third in Kenner near the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. According to Quinlan, Ochsner is currently the largest private employer in Louisiana. He sees these acquisitions as far more than providing essential health care, stating that, “We want them to be an anchor, a cornerstone for the rebuilding of those communities.”

Ochsner shut down only for a few days during Katrina due to water shortage, but reopened quickly and served as an oasis during the crisis. Says Quinlan, “Our board gave us unfettered authority to stand up for our people inside the company and for our people in the community to just do the right thing.” For him, fielding the challenges of the hurricane and its aftermath became an uplifting experience. “I was in my office for seven weeks.... Being with people who are at their best when situations are at their worst is inspiring.”

Three-fourths of Ochsner’s staff had lost or damaged homes, says Quinlan. The institution’s family orientation showed during the crisis. “We provided housing, we rented large blocks of hotels, we provided...bus services, and we provided free meals for whomever needed them up through about June.” The institution converted the cafeteria into a makeshift department store for donations and distributions of household goods and raised $3 million to help its employees recover and rebuild.

Ochsner also reached out to other institutions, creating space for Charity-LSU to set up a temporary trauma center. It continues to assist both Tulane and LSU medical schools by providing clinical rotations for students, residents, and fellows.

“We recognize that the future for New Orleans, the future for each institution is to work collaboratively together to create the national presence that we all want,” says Quinlan. “The more we work together the more likely we all are to succeed as individuals, as institutions, as cities and as citizens.”

Ochsner has rebuilt most of its facilities over the last five years and established an electronic medical records system—a great help when patients evacuated during the hurricane. As far as needs, “I don’t think we can hire enough people in any field right now,” says Quinlan. “We thought recruiting might be difficult.” But he’s discovering a different kind of applicants—individuals who want to be a part of the rebuilding process, who have a pioneer spirit, and who want to make a difference.

Arriving in a new New Orleans

One of the physicians who came to the city and joined Ochsner post-Katrina is attending neonatologist Matthew Cortez, MD. “People ask: ‘Why did you come?’“ says Cortez, who was drawn to the opportunity to serve in a leadership role relatively early in his career as well as to be a part of something bigger. “It was kind of a rebuilding of a system that has been there for years ... the whole infrastructure of New Orleans itself,” he says. He was in private practice for four years in Birmingham, Alabama then completed a fellowship in neonatology at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville prior to taking the position at Ochsner.

“Ironically, I was set to come back for my second interview [at Ochsner] the week of the storm,” says Cortez. He was in contact with administrators throughout the crisis, but it didn’t dissuade him from coming to New Orleans. Cortez’s wife, a general pediatrician, has family in the New Orleans area, but he also was drawn to the city itself. “I came here to interview in 1995 for my residency and rode down the streetcar on St. Charles, and I just fell in love with it. It was something about this city. It’s got a really strong sense of community.”

Cortez and his wife purchased a house on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, a popular destination of many New Orleanians after the storm. The North Shore is connected to the New Orleans suburb of Metairie by 24 miles of causeway. With the shift in population, this area’s hospitals were forced to grow quickly, and there was a need for new roads, which are under construction. The demand for housing created a seller’s market for a time. Cortez and his wife were able to live with family and wait for the market to calm before buying, but then encountered the homeowner’s insurance challenge. “That was an interesting ordeal,” says Cortez. They ultimately combined coverage from a company with a policy from a state-sponsored plan.

It took a little extra time and effort for medical student Ann Hansen and her husband to find housing in a safe area of post-Katrina New Orleans, but they succeeded. Hansen, who is in her first year at Tulane University School of Medicine, had lived in Baton Rouge ten years earlier, and she and her husband longed to return to Louisiana. But Hansen discovered a very different New Orleans than the one she’d seen before. “I didn’t realize the impact of Katrina until I came here.”

During her admission interview, Hansen traveled to Houston where the school temporarily relocated after flooding. Despite the geographic changes, Hansen was impressed. “The actual soul of the school and the core of the school was unaffected,” she says. “There was a tremendous school spirit.” Though she had applied to other medical schools, Tulane was one of her top choices because of its reputation.

Interest in helping rebuild health care in New Orleans is particularly strong among medical students. The first-year class at Tulane University School of Medicine numbered 165 students, exceeding pre-Katrina admission by ten students.

Some courses have been downsized and some professors haven’t come back since the hurricane, says Hansen. But she is moved and inspired to be working among heroes. “They just seem like normal doctors and nurses but you hear the stories of what they did....taking care of patients and helping people throughout the Katrina disaster. I think there’s a very strong family feeling in those people, and it’s bound to make them stronger people and better doctors.”

Preserving a culture

Seeing people in the aftermath of a disaster “is a new cultural experience,” says Hansen. “But it’s possible to have a pretty normal life here.”

School is a fundamental part of that normal everyday life. “I know that many of the private schools have got availability and really good teachers,” says Curiel, who has two children. Things have changed significantly in the New Orleans public schools, which have a longstanding history of problems. After the hurricane, the state took control of the public school system, and many have since become charter schools. But the storm took a toll on a number of special school programs, like music.

The public schools have long been carriers of traditions like music, says David Freedman, general manager of WWOZ, a nonprofit radio station in the French Quarter that plays jazz, blues, zydeco, Cajun, and other genres deeply rooted in New Orleans. The departure of many of the city’s musicians has given rise to serious concern about the survival of the New Orleans distinctive music culture—the brass bands, pleasure clubs, Mardi Gras Indians, and marching bands.

Before Katrina, an estimated 5,000 professional musicians lived in the city known as the “birthplace of jazz.” Only a fraction have been able to return permanently. “There is a critical mass—and nobody knows what that critical mass is—that maintains a living music culture—the kind that’s been around in New Orleans since before the civil war,” says Freedman. “There was a time before the flood when the city’s musicians could go out and play ten to twelve gigs a week.” A special coalition called Sweet Home New Orleans is dedicated to helping musicians return to the city by serving as a one-stop resource for finding affordable housing, schools, health care, and addressing other issues musicians are facing. (www.sweethomeneworleans.org)

The music culture in New Orleans is distinctive. Says Freedman, “It’s often said that New Orleans drummers can play with anyone in the world, but people coming in from the outside can’t play in New Orleans because they can’t get the rhythm.” Freedman once enjoyed hearing kids blasting their trombones near the radio station after school but not now. He is working to restore music programs in the schools by raising funds to bring back school band directors.

“It all comes down to neighborhoods and people....” says Freedman. Music received its annual spring boost with the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival featuring Norah Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Irma Thomas, and a long list of other well-known and not-so-well-known musicians.

Of course Jazzfest wouldn’t be a true New Orleans festival without food—po-boys, gumbo, and crawfish everything from bread to pie. Though some of the best food in New Orleans can be found beneath a tent, the city boasts some of the world’s top chefs, including Emeril Lagasse, Paul Prudhomme, and Susan Spicer, to name just a few.

There are plenty of fun things to do in New Orleans besides eat and party. Families enjoy a world-class zoo, swamp tours, and a children’s museum that’s among the nation’s best. Sports fans are delighted by the return of the Saints football team, and the NBA Hornets split their time between New Orleans and Oklahoma City.

Many athletes find the mild, subtropical climate favorable. “I was able to participate in outdoor sports all year round,” says Curiel, an ultradistance runner who holds the record for the Mardi Gras Ultra Distance Classic, a 125-mile footrace along the levee from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

“New Orleans is one of my favorite cities of all times,” says Curiel. “If you like fine dining, if you like history, if you like culture and the arts, it’s a really great city.”

Not even killer Hurricane Katrina can change the fact that there is no place like New Orleans. Amid her charm and fun-loving spirit, unrivaled challenges remain. However, many of us who know her well believe New Orleans will rebuild better and stronger, and someday she’ll spin all the hardship into Lagniappe (Creole for “a little something extra”), only adding to her character and charisma. For now, the work goes on. END

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Susan Sarver is a free-lance writer who lived in New Orleans for eleven years. She relocated to Chicago following Hurricane Katrina.