Mon, 19 Sep 2005
FEMA Follies
There's more evidence of misbehavior by FEMA on the web. First, there's this absolutely unbelievable story of a doctor who was ordered to stop working on a dying woman because the proper paperwork hadn't been filled out.
In the midst of administering chest compressions to a dying woman several days after Hurricane Katrina struck, Dr. Mark N. Perlmutter was ordered to stop by a federal official because he wasn't registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "I begged him to let me continue," said Perlmutter, who left his home and practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania to come to Louisiana and volunteer to care for hurricane victims. "People were dying, and I was the only doctor on the tarmac (at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) where scores of nonresponsive patients lay on stretchers. Two patients died in front of me.
And Skip writes how a political hack from Homeland Security threw him out of a Red Cross relief center because he was working with Veterans for Peace.
We met Dr. Murphy a little after noon, and she was very friendly. She told us she would find a place for us to work Ð I as a physician, and my wife as an organizational specialist. However, midway through our tour of the facility, she stepped into the office of Mr. Hart, the Homeland security rep, and there were some tense words exchanged between them. She repeatedly exclaimed that we were not representing VFP, and finally there was a long period of silence. Mr. Hart apparently made some gestures we couldn't see. She sighed, and turned to us, and abruptly suggested we get some lunch in the basement. As we ate, she started talking about how the Red Cross was pulling out of her parish within a week, how there were already an excess of docs, and that our services wouldn't be needed.
I would write some things about people who put politics and procedure ahead of peoples lives. But none it is very Buddhist, so I'll end the post here.
