By Kayla Gagnet
Gannett News Service
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050923/NEWS01/509230353/1002/NEWS

NEW ORLEANS -- No longer a place of mayhem, disorder and human suffering, a portion of the Ernest Morial New Orleans Convention Center has been transformed into the city's first fully operational hospital.

"Our primary mission is to be the city's emergency room," said Capt. Rob Rigdon, operations chief of the U. S. Army's 14th Combat Support Hospital unit out of Fort Benning, Ga.

In 72 hours ending Thursday, the unit had turned the center where 30,000 Hurricane Katrina victims had awaited evacuation for up to five days from a place full of debris and human waste into an antiseptic place of healing.

"We are a stopgap EMS for all citizens of greater New Orleans," Rigdon said.

Though there are five hospitals operating in suburban Jefferson Parish, none of New Orleans regular hospitals is yet open, several having been flooded.

The 262-member unit originally set up their field hospital on the tarmac at Louis Armstrong International Airport, but Gen. Russel Honore, sent by President Bush to direct military operations in New Orleans, decided he wanted the hospital closer to downtown, in a well-known spot.

So on Tuesday, the unit moved and was completing setting up on the south side of the Convention Center on Thursday.

The 25-bed hospital, complete with operating rooms, intensive care units, dental emergency services, occupational and physical therapy units, was to start admitting patients early today.

The unit, which will be deployed in the Middle East next year, can expand the hospital quickly by another 204 beds as soon as they need them, Rigdon said. If necessary, they could set up 140 beds outdoors. A helicopter pad was nearby, with 20 Blackhawk helicopters on stand-by to bring patients in and out.

"Sleeping areas and office areas, all that goes out the window. If a bed is needed, we can create a spot," Rigdon said.

Though set up inside the huge convention hall, each segment of the hospital was housed in about a dozen large green army tents, each with its own air-conditioning system.

Distilled water was stored for patient use, a water treatment system had been erected to provide potable water and giant generators were on standby in case Hurricane Rita causes the Convention Center to lose its regular Entergy power.

Environmental testing was under way to monitor carbon dioxide levels and to take other air and water quality samples for the Centers for Disease Control to test.

Sgt. Datham Benton said he was testing the water, purified by reverse osmosis in tanks outside the center, and conducting more long-term tests so the CDC can plot on a map any potential health hazards in the city.

To staff the hospital, the Army pulled 30 doctors from military hospitals around the country so as not to leave any hospital short of staff.

Before the first tent could be erected, the convention center had to undergo a thorough cleaning by the Oklahoma National Guard unit.

It took 1,600 troops armed with brooms, mops and bleach a full day to clean the human waste and trash left behind by Katrina victims who jammed into the Convention Center the first week after the storm, said Maj. Jason Henry with the 45th Infantry Brigade of Oklahoma National Guard.

"The stench finally got out of here," Henry said.

Only the southernmost portion of the Convention Center -- that nearest the Crescent City Connection, the two downtown bridges over the Mississippi River -- has been cleaned for military use, including the hospital.

While the hospital was not open for the estimated 40,000 relief workers and the remaining citizens, guessed to be around 8,000 to 10,000, in New Orleans, it began treating members of the military unit Thursday afternoon.