Help chronically ill prepare for disasters

Flooding post Hurricane Katrina in Central New Orleans

Editor - Critically ill or those with chronic health problems often have trouble faring well during times of disasters, as occurred during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as well as other disasters. Experts maintain the elderly, children and those with special needs require special preparation in the event of an emergency.

During Katrina Medical folks found survival of 5,800 Gulf Coast kidney dialysis patients were threatened after the storm brought closure of 94 dialysis units.  148 of these patients were reported to have died the first month.

One individuals of these was a man called Napoleon.  Few people, except those who had known Napoleon over time knew the last or full name of the bright, bubbly, talented individual known simply as Napoleon.

He was that well known and beloved by other artists as well as people in general around Jackson Square, who enjoyed the shared joy of being with a man who had a ready smile for everyone who came by.

Napoleon's focus with his art included New Orleans street scenes and jazz artistry,which captured the beat of the city in special ways people recognized as uniquely his style.

A man who was generous with his time and talents, Napoleon took fledgling artists under his wing and offered them feedback that helped them grow.  Many artists on Jackson Square grew better with their paintings because of their interaction with Napoleon.

Napoleon died at the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina, a dialysis patient, a long-term victim of diabetes, victimized again for lack of preparedness and living out his last days under the worst conditions.

It was an unnecessary death.  When I learned of it, like many of Napoleon's friends I wept at the loss.  Who could replace a man with such a zest for life and joy in giving?  But that death of a diabetic who needed special care was a reminder to many how the chronically ill must prepare for disasters and how the community needs to support that effort.

Researchers have now examined how the lack of emergency preparations led to the needless deaths of many people during and after Hurricane Katrina hit the City of New Orleans.  Having preparedness may have enabled Napoleon and others like him to survive.  This is especially true for those who need the careful monitoring like kidney dialysis patients.

Some years ago a survey was made of kidney disease patients and hurricane preparedness at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine.  Researchers looked at the impact on patients over the period subsequent to Hurricane Katrina.  North Carolina is among the top four states with hurricane emergencies.

What researchers say is this:

“End stage kidney disease patients are dependent on medical treatment at regular intervals for their ongoing health, and, as such, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of a disaster. We found that patients on dialysis are largely unprepared for such an event, whether they are forced to stay in their homes or evacuate,” said Mark Foster, lead author of the study.  The results of the study were presented in 2010 at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine in Phoenix.


The complexity of dialysis treatment requires that an individual go to a dialysis facility three times weekly for treatment.  Dialysis is the strategy that allows the filtering of harmful wastes from the blood.  If this can't be done,it can lead to serious health problems and death, as physicians have observed.

What was found in this UNC suvey of 311 dialysis patients was general
disaster preparedness and dialysis-specific preparedness of most
respondents was poor.  This was true regardless of sex, race, age,
income or education.

Lack of  preparedness was described as this: "With regard to general disaster preparedness, 58 percent said they had enough bottled water at home to last for three days while 54 percent said they had enough food and water for three days."And for general preparedness researchers found nearly half of the people in the study had 75 percent of the items on a disaster preparedness checklist recommended by the Department of Homeland Security.

But it was not enough.  Those with complicated conditions need not 75 percent preparedness but 100 percent.

That may have saved the life of Napoleon.  Although no one knows for sure, he likely struggled considerably, given the fact that he spent his last days at the Super Dome, which hardly presented the disaster preparedness that even the healthy required.