So with hotel security at the watch, the pharmacist, the police officers, the family practice physician, and I waded across Canal Street in thigh-deep water to the drugstore. With their weapons drawn, officers Jeff Jacob and Tommy Redmann kept the looters out. The door had already been smashed. We went in with several other police officers. It was dark and full of water, it stank, and there were items floating everywhere. The pharmacy was locked, but our pharmacist figured out how to smash through a plastic window divider and climb in. Then he figured out how the shelves were organized and found a refrigerator containing some insulin. I tried to stuff things into my pockets but soon realized that it was futile. Someone found trash bags, and we were in business...Technorati Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, New England Journal of Medicine
I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Essays About Hurricane Katrina In This Month's New England Journal of Medicine (Free Full Text)
This week's NEJM has eight essays on Hurricane Katrina written by physicians. The text is free online. Many of the doctors are from New Orleans. In Finding Supplies, Gregory S. Henderson, M.D., Ph.D. writes the following: