N.C. SMAT II teams provide critical medical care to stricken area

4,800 seen for ailments, injuries

Hundreds of members of North Carolina’s State Medical Assistance Teams (SMAT) are providing medical services to thousands of residents in the Waveland, Miss., area as part of the response to the citizens of the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast.

A group of 98 medical professionals and a convoy of 39 vehicles and trailers were deployed by the N.C. SMAT and the Regional Advisory Committee teams Sept. 2. The initial group was comprised of paramedics, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, law enforcement, N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services staff and others from four of the state’s SMAT II and III mobile medical units and Charlotte’s Carolinas Medical Center MED-1 mobile hospital.

The destination: the Kmart parking lot in Waveland Miss., where the portable hospital and ancillary services sprung up practically overnight. Waveland took the brunt when the hurricane moved ashore Aug. 29 and nearly all was destroyed, including the community’s Hancock Regional Hospital. A storm surge washed miles of houses from their foundations and covered the Kmart, two miles inland, under 28 feet of water.

After the first week of operation SMAT team leader Holli Hoffman called for assistance from N.C. Public Health Preparedness and Response to check on public health hazards associated with the after-effects of the storm. PHPR Team Leader Will Service, an industrial hygienist, said he deployed with an initial team of seven, including a physician epidemiologist and environmental health specialists.

“When we first arrived, there was gastroenteritis, illness, rashes,” Service said. “The environment was in horrible shape. The response team was dropped into the middle of a giant catastrophic mess down there with bodies, storefronts blown out, no food, no water and no electricity. So there were a lot of environmental health issues…. We addressed those things for the hospital so they could keep running.”

The mobile hospital and SMAT units operate on a rotational schedule that allows for restocking of supplies, and fresh replacement responders every week, including PHPR staff.

“We have rotated 380 medical personnel in there who have administered medical aid to 4,800 patients,” said Drexdal Pratt, chief of the N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services. He said staff rotations of 60 or 70 specialists per week are making the trip to Mississippi. The rotations will likely continue through mid- to late October.

Thus far, the group has mostly provided outpatient care to a range of patients from youngsters to the elderly, mostly with wounds and injuries from the ongoing debris cleanup. There also have been cardiac and diabetes patients, and several people with gastro-intestinal disorders attributed to food and water contamination, and several patients with rashes, Pratt said.

The North Carolina response incorporates personnel and equipment from acute care hospitals and emergency medical services across the state, all coordinated through the state’s seven Regional Advisory Committees (RAC) on trauma. The lead trauma center in each RAC is coordinating the staffing for these units from member hospitals of the RAC.

“It is incredible to see the whole schematic now,” said Hoffman, who returned to Waveland on Sept. 27 for the first time in nearly three weeks. “There is a mobile dental clinic, health department clinic, mobile pharmacy, three staff tents, three supply tents, a mobile CT scanner, a dining tent for staff, a mobile shower trailer, and other support trailers. Around the camp now the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center has set up to process housing for the people, the American Red Cross is now on scene for financial recovery assistance, and multiple insurance companies have set up.”

In a place where there suddenly was nothing but rubble, something is happening around the portable medical center.

“It has become ‘the city’,” she said. “People gather there daily in huge numbers. Wal-Mart has even set up a tent out front to sell critical items. There is still no power or water, so generators are everywhere. However, the power is getting back to our area this week and we hope this is the beginning of a huge build out.”

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Last Modified: September 30, 2005