CRISIS/HEALTHCARE: “Doctors waded miles through Houston’s flooded roads to reach their clinics. Other medical staff camped out at their hospitals for days, catching some sleep on cots between shifts. One medical facility was forced to evacuate patients by boat.
The health-care system in the nation’s fourth-largest city strained to deliver care as floodwaters thwarted cancer and kidney-dialysis treatment, stalled ambulance traffic and left hospital officials worriedly monitoring dwindling supplies of food and medicines.
Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, a sprawling health care and medical research complex that includes nationally known institutions including MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and the Texas Children’s Hospital.
‘We’re very worried right now about the health and well being of our patients, families and our staff in Greater Houston,’ said Cris Daskevich, senior vice president of Texas Children’s Hospital, which closed its outpatient clinics and canceled most outpatient procedures Monday. ‘There’s been a great deal of loss and devastation.’ “
-Melanie Evans, Joseph Walker, and Peter Loftus, “Amid Harvey Flooding, Hospitals Offer ‘Islands of Humanity’,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 28, 2017 08:47pm