Thank you Sara for taking time to let us know what is going on. You have put it so well into words what others are thinking. My thoughts and prayers are with you and everybody involved. I can't help but remember our initial meeting of Wilderness PAs was in New Orleans and how vibrant a city it was. New Orleans will rise from the ashes like the phoenix. Miggy Scott PA-C

sarasquyres <sara.squyres@...> wrote:

Hello all-

It has been a crazy unreal place around here lately.  It is hard to
think that just a few hours away the ravages of nature have taken so
many lives and so much property.  Maybe it IS the "great equalizer"
as some would say, or could be if people would let it.  In the
despair and poverty, good could acutally come.  I see sadness and
pain in the many faces of the people I treat every day, and yet I
also see smiles.  They are the grateful that they are alive and they
have dry clothes and food and water- the basics of life.  They have
families across the country who want to take them in, give them jobs
and schools and shelter.  But they are scared.  They do not want to
go on the cruise ships where they are yet again surrounded by
water.  They are scared to go to the places that we know are
beautiful- with wonderful people to welcome them, like Idaho.  They
are used to the South and their way of life here.  They have not
flown in planes, have not seen mountains, or been out of Louisiana,
and Houston seems as close as they can get to their "home".  They
have stories to tell and they are telling them.  Sometimes when the
lines are minimal in the medical stations, some of the people just
want to come in for something like a pimple, so they can be with
someone who cares.
Many of us are physically strained, but the needs of these people
keep us going.  They need us, and they are why we are in medicine.
And, at last, wilderness medical training has come in to play in my
life in the urban setting of such a catastrophe.  I hope I can
continue to help these people.  As I unloaded sick patients at
Ellington Field, and am now providing medical care at the Astrodome,
I pray that my family has the patience to be without me and "hold
down the fort", and that I can have the knowledge and sensitiviey to
continue to help where I am needed.