The main hospital in St. Bernard Parish, Chalmette Medical Center, managed to begin evacuating, but after the first round of critically ill patients left, ambulances never returned. Administrators from one New Orleans hospital wanted to move nine of their sickest patients to western Louisiana. But unless they could arrange an urgent, costly airlift, it seemed to be too late. The roadways were now so clogged with evacuees, the vulnerable patients could be trapped for up to a day in an ambulance before arriving. One nursing home had, before hurricane season, retained a New Orleans tour company
...more
