In the PMAC, University students have seen Tasmin Mitchell dunk and have witnessed Quianna Chaney sink 3-point shots. But after Hurricane Gustav’s landfall Monday, the basketball arena was only familiar to those who experienced Hurricane Katrina on campus in 2005.The foul lines and hardwood floor are covered by cots, divided into eight sections by white, maroon and green drapes hung from poles. Special-needs patients rest on the court where typically the screech of sneakers is drowned by dribbling repetition. Fans don’t cheer in the upper sections. Now, 10 National Guardsmen circle the higher level in pairs to provide security detail, assault rifles slung over their shoulders.”Things so far have been very good,” said Dr. Robert Thibodaux, who is volunteering in the PMAC for the second time in four years. “It was much more chaotic [during Katrina] than this year, so things are going quite well considering.”The PMAC is being used as a state-operated, special-needs medical facility, which officially opened Friday afternoon, although operations began as early as 8 a.m. Friday. Currently 185 patients are in the facility with 75 caregivers, typically a patient’s family member, according to Jamie Roques, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals spokeswoman and nurse practitioner. On Monday, the facility’s population peeked with 200 patients and 132 caregivers — capacity is a total of 400 people, one caregiver for each patient.”It’s just begun,” Roques said. “But this time might be easier and quicker than Katrina.”After Hurricane Katrina, the special-needs medical facility operated out of the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse, where patients remained for six weeks after the storm. Roques said she can’t estimate how long patients will be housed in the PMAC but said they cannot return home at least until roads are cleared and electricity is restored across the state — feats that may take weeks.”Most of what we have here are chronically ill patients,” Thibodaux said. “Most of them reside in nursing homes. They have a lot of conditions but aren’t sick enough to be in the hospital.”The Maddox Fieldhouse is being used as a federal shelter with room for 500 people. Fifty beds are used as a temporary emergency edical operation and staging area, while the remaining 250 are being used in the same manner as the PMAC.At 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, the Maddox Fieldhouse sheltered 70 medical special-needs patients, 47 caregivers, 85 U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps members, a 35-member Disaster Medical Assistance Team from Massachusetts and a 24-member team from Georgia.Most of the PMAC patients are from New Orleans or the Houma-Thibdoeaux area, Roques said. They came to the PMAC on stretchers from ambulances, airplanes and helicopters.PMAC workers fielded “hundreds” of phone calls on their 10 lines used to triage patients, allowing paperwork to be complete before arriving on campus. Once patients made it to the PMAC, they underwent a physical examination and then registered for a place to stay in one of the four wards, organized for logistical purposes by type of care needed.At least 44 volunteers registered to help Tuesday, Roques said. Overall, 244 volunteers, medical and non-medical, have lent a hand to patients in the PMAC. Volunteers can sign up online and be assigned jobs before arriving on site.These volunteers, Roques said, were essential in making a loss of power bearable for patients. Volunteers helped transfer patients to cylinder oxygen from electric tanks, while making patients comfortable in the heat.At least nine patients were transfered to local hospitals during Gustav’s rain and wind because of the power loss, Roques said. The PMAC didn’t have power for around six hours Monday, but no patients were adversely affected because of the loss.Roques said she expected a back-up generator to kick in, but because of technical difficulties, the generator failed and the PMAC sat in the dark to weather Gustav.When the generator failed, Roger Walters lead his advanced life support team in driving their ambulances close to the PMAC doors, where they strung extension cords from the vehicles’ power converters to help patients indoors.”There was enough [power] to go around for the critical needs,” Walters said. “It just took a lot of coordination.”Another setback facing PMAC workers is quickly depleting medical supplies. Deborah Guidry, DHH emergency response coordinator for public health in region 2, said despite receiving adequate supplies from local hospitals, other parishes and the state, some supplies — oxygen tanks, diabetic aids and adult diapers — are disappearing quickly. Roques reccommended items not be donated as she anticipates restocking from state-funded shipments.”The patients we received were a lot sicker than we would normally have anticipated,” Guidry said of DHH’s calculations to provide supplies for 200 patients 72 hours.Kevin Scott, University incident commander, said 86 Louisiana National Guardsmen from various companies are providing security in the PMAC while another 15 are doing the same in the Maddox Fieldhouse.”It’s all security focused operations,” Milton Ramirez, master sergeant and second in command told The Daily Reveille on Sunday night. “So the medical folks can do their job without having to worry about their own safety.”Chartwells, the company contracted to provide dining services to the University, is responsible for feeding PMAC patients, Roques said. The PMAC shelter also includes mental health assistance and an electronic medication station — the only one at a Louisiana shelter — which is stocked daily with the medications patients need, eliminating the need for an on-site pharmacist, said Roques.The PMAC shelter is a joint operation between the University, DHH, Department of Social Services and the LSU Health System.
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected].