![]() ![]() It was clean and functional.”(10) Following the restoration of Charity’s first three floors, efforts made by military personnel to ensure the hospital had reliable power were thwarted. Louisiana’s State Treasurer John Kennedy attested to the state of Charity Hospital following these efforts, saying “The lights and A/C were on. military personnel returned to assess the damage and begin clean-up.(9) The flood water was soon pumped out of the hospital, power could be restored, and the facility was cleaned to a sufficient state. became surrounded by water within 24 hours of Katrina’s arrival, leaving the estimated 600 patients and unknown number of healthcare workers stranded within Charity Hospital.(5) The austere conditions within Charity were well documented: surgery was performed under flashlights, tracheostomy-dependent patients ventilated themselves, and critically ill patients were transferred from intensive care units on the twelfth floor to the ambulance bay on the ground level via unlit stairwells.(7) While other hospitals were being evacuated, the people inside Charity were abandoned neighboring Tulane University Medical Center hired 20 private helicopters to evacuate its 1,400 patients and providers, highlighting the demarcation between public and private healthcare in a visually acute sense.(8)Īfter Charity’s occupants were evacuated, a collection of employees and U.S. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane the onslaught wind and rain caused electrical and communication disruption immediately.(7) Charity Hospital’s location on Tulane Ave. ![]() ![]() The landfall of Hurricane Katrina brought an end to this legacy and irreversibly changed healthcare delivery for the entirety of New Orleans. While its position as one of the nation’s oldest hospitals alone is noteworthy, it is also Charity Hospital’s sustained function as a hospital of last resort for the region’s poor and underserved amidst a variety of operational changes that makes Charity Hospital’s history unique. The first iteration of what would become Charity Hospital- L’Hospital des Pauvres de la Charite-was founded in the French colony of New Orleans with funds bequeathed by Jean Louis for treatment of the colony’s indigent in 17361 (2) fires, hurricanes, and the need for more space forced a series of several moves and rebuilds over the hospital’s history until a sixth and final iteration in 1939 resulted in a twenty story, Art Deco-styled hospital located at 1532 Tulane Ave housing over 2,680 beds.(1-4) The hospital came under public control after the Louisiana Department of Health assumed control from the Sisters of Charity in 1970.(4) Eventually, Charity’s operation was turned over to the Louisiana Health Care Authority (LHCA) in 1991, the state’s network of public safety-net hospitals described as a “holdover remnant of Keynesian New Deal-era policies”5 before ownership of this system was transferred to the Louisiana State University (LSU) system in 1997. The various sociopolitical maneuvers state officials used to keep Charity Hospital closed- in favor of building a new hospital-should serve as a cautionary tale for communities under the ever-increasing threat of natural disasters secondary to climate change safety net hospitals like Charity are subject to predatory disaster capitalism that puts the health and safety of the communities they serve at risk. The closure of Charity Hospital, described herein through the lens of disaster capitalism, resulted in a concentration of ill-fated consequences for marginalized communities in New Orleans, the effects of which are longstanding. While Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the city of New Orleans has been discussed at length, what remains under discussed is how Hurricane Katrina’s initial destruction was only one part of a protracted disaster that unfolded. ![]()
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