Women's & Children's Hospital became one of many area hospitals Wednesday to be inundated with new patients from New Orleans, mostly neo-natal babies.
Angela Jacks, spokeswoman for Women's & Children's Hospital, said there were anywhere from 16 to 20 babies who had been transported from Tulane, their sister hospital.
Jacks could not give an exact number of how many babies they were treating, because the number keeps fluctuating.
"We're taking the most critical babies," she said, of those who could not survive the longer trips to hospitals farther away. For those who can, she said, they are assessed and then are sent elsewhere.
Many of those babies came alone; their parents and caretakers are still trapped elsewhere.
"We have some that are here; we have some that are on their way. We have some that are still stranded in New Orleans," she said.
Early Wednesday, Jacks said there were still parents who had not been tracked down. Later that day, she said their families had been contacted.
Along with those parents, there are others who are making cold calls in the hopes their loved ones have ended up there.
A woman from Cleveland, Ohio, called after she heard that her mother had been transported to a hospital within the city.
These types of calls have become common place, she said.
"We try to network with the other hospitals and try to find their family members," she said. "We can't find everybody, but we try. We do our best."
She said they've also received calls from nurses who have now become separated from their former patients.
"To be a nurse, you have to have such a good, caring heart. Just because they're letting go of the baby doesn't mean they're still not holding on to them," she said.
She said that obviously, "Right now, the hospitals' main concern is the care of the patients and getting them to a facility that can take care of them."
Jason Brown
jbrown@theadvertiser.com
The Daily Advertiser
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