As he looked at the full beds and patients “packed and stacked in the hallways,” he shifted into triage mode, asking himself “Who’s dying first?” and who could he save.

October 3, 2017

“The Las Vegas University Medical Center looked like a war zone when trauma surgeon Jay Coates arrived just after 11 p.m. PT to care for the scores of wounded victims of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history. “We started divvying them up, taking them to the operating room and doing what’s called ‘damage control

After Hurricane Harvey a man in Texas says he got infected with flesh-eating bacteria

September 12, 2017

J.R. Atkins, of Missouri City, Texas, wrote in a Facebook post that he was hospitalized after what he thought was a small bug bite turned into swelling and some numbness in his hand. He had been kayaking through flooded streets to check on his neighbors, Atkins wrote, and noticed the bite when he returned home.The

Military helicopters and jets were overhead, as President Bush was getting ready to leave. The plumes of smoke from the World Trade Center were still billowing skyward.

September 10, 2017

*written by Jonathan M. Metsch on September 14, 2001; published in the Jersey Journal on September 18, 2001 Suddenly a huge white military hospital ship with four Red Crosses steamed by and docked right across river. I thought how this hospital ship brought the war even closer to home but mostly about how the hospitals

It appears that Hurricane Irma evacuation shelter managers may make people wait outside for hours? If so, just welcome them in and then do the registration process inside.

September 9, 2017

Making evacuees wait outside adds the anxiety of worrying about whether they made the right decision to seek shelter, to the already existing fear of temporary “homelessness” becoming permanent. “The storm is here,” Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday morning, noting that the storm surge could reach 15 feet in some places. “Fifteen feet is devastating

Hurricane Harvey. “There’s no need to test it (flood water),”…“It’s contaminated. There’s millions of contaminants.”…

August 31, 2017

Officials in Houston are just beginning to grapple with the health and environmental risks that lurk in the waters dumped by Hurricane Harvey, a stew of toxic chemicals, sewage, debris and waste that still floods much of the city. Flooded sewers are stoking fears of cholera, typhoid and other infectious diseases. Runoff from the city’s

After Hurricane Harvey – Robust Public Health Response

August 30, 2017

“In the immediate emergency there’s concern around drowning, and especially for folks who are in motor vehicles where there is severe flooding, blunt trauma, fire-related injuries,” said Marisa Raphael, deputy commissioner of the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the New York City Health Department. Vulnerable populations, like the homeless, the elderly and the

“Houston’s world-renowned health care infrastructure found itself battered by Hurricane Harvey, struggling to treat storm victims while becoming a victim itself.”

August 28, 2017

“Water poured into hospitals. Ambulances were caught up in roiling floodwaters. Medical transport helicopters were grounded by high winds. Houston’s world-renowned health care infrastructure found itself battered by Hurricane Harvey, struggling to treat storm victims while becoming a victim itself…. The response to Harvey, now a tropical storm but still wreaking havoc over the state,