Nagin to Congress: "OBI is only public clinic in New Orleans East"
POSTED: Aug. 27, 2007
By Sarah Pate
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Hurricane Katrina was responsible for more than $75 billion in damages.
Operation Blessing President Bill Horan stands outside OBI's medical clinic which opened April 3, 2006.
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NEW ORLEANS - It wasn't enough for Hurricane Katrina to breech levees, destroy thousands of homes and become the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with more than $75 billion in damages.
The Category 3 storm that devastated the Gulf Coast states on August 29, 2005, went a step further by bringing an entire health care system to its knees.
Two years later, the storm is still wreaking havoc on New Orleans residents, having increased the city's death rate by 48 percent, according to a report by the New Orleans Health Department.
"Every level of our health care delivery system was affected," said New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin in a recent testimony before Congress on the status of the city's health care. "Every hospital and medical facility in Orleans Parish was shut down and since the storm only four of the eight hospitals have reopened, most at decreased capacity."
"Since Hurricane Katrina, the only public clinical services in New Orleans East have been provided at a temporary site staffed by Operation Blessing, a faith-based nonprofit," Nagin added.
Newly-made poor
Katrina's major blow was not in storm-related injuries, but in leaving chronically-ill patients with no health care, no medicine and no insurance – residents OBI President Bill Horan refers to as the "newly-made poor."
"The population that we are serving is not just those who were poor before Katrina, but thousands of newly-made poor . . . folks who had jobs, cars, homes, and health insurance," Horan said.
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Viani brings her 4-week-old son, Jose Manuel, to OBI's clinic for a check-up.
OBI medical staff treat Robert who had run out of insulin and arrived to the clinic with a dangerously high blood sugar level.
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Since April 3, 2006, Operation Blessing's expanded medical and dental clinics in New Orleans East have been providing free health care and prescription medicine to thousands of these residents.
Roughly half of the clinic's patients have high blood pressure, while approximately one fourth suffer from diabetes.
When New Orleans resident Robert arrived to the clinic, his blood sugar level was at a dangerously high 345 and normal range for him is 150.
"I was trying to find my old doctor but her place had damage," Robert said. "Then I went to a clinic near Tulane (hospital) but they told me I would have to come back the next day. So I heard there was another clinic in the east."
Robert was treated and left the clinic with a supply of insulin in hand.
"I got everything I need now," Robert said.
Best of America
At the clinic's ribbon-cutting ceremony in April 2006, Chairman Donald Powell, White House Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, called Operation Blessing the "best of America."
"I promise you these people are going to meet the needs," Powell said.
To date, both medical and dental clinics combined have treated more than 28,000 patients and filled nearly 68,000 prescriptions. But they have not done it alone.
In June 2006, The Salvation Army awarded OBI $1.8 million to help the clinic provide free prescription medicine to Katrina victims for the next 12 months.
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"I promise you these people are going to meet the needs," said Chairman Powell regarding OBI.
A Mayo clinic doctor takes a patient's blood pressure at OBI's "Medical Recovery Week" in March.
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At a "Medical Recovery Week" held in January of this year, some 400 doctors and medical personnel from across the U.S. to provide more than 10,000 medical services ranging from dentistry to cardiology.
Among them was a team of 38 from Minnesota's Mayo Clinic.
"We are looking to do more where there is a high humanitarian importance and impact in the community and this was a perfect fit for our team," said Walt Franz, a family doctor with the Mayo Clinic.
Since then the Mayo Clinic has linked arms with Operation Blessing, making a 5-month commitment to send a medical team each month to volunteer at the clinic.
"We're trying to alert others that there's still a need, and the need is chronic care," said Dr. Franz in Minnesota's Post Bulletin.
OBI President Bill Horan agrees.
"Hopefully we can elevate the awareness of America to see the ongoing needs here in New Orleans," Horan said. "These people deserve help and they need our help."
Operation Blessing plans to continue running both medical and dental clinics through December 2007.
How You Can Help
Be a part of OBI's ongoing disaster relief efforts by making an online donation to help those caught in the midst of disaster.
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