The Power of Money

It's the people Gary Peters couldn't save who haunt him. An emergency medical technician from northern Louisiana, Peters spent last week evacuating scores of patients from New Orleans's flooded hospitals, ferrying them to makeshift medical centers. On one run, Peters and his team floated by a crowd of "two, maybe three thousand" people at the water's edge, screaming for help. But his team had to finish its mission. "

The health establishment of New Orleans, like the rest of the city was hard hit. They will face a number of major tasks in the effort to serve those now in need and rebuild. One point that has struck me in some of the different stories we are hearing about life in the New Orleans hospitals, the difference big money makes.

A volunteer tells about his time spent at Memorial Hospital, in a hard hit section of the city.

"The conditions were abysmal," Quigley said. "Worse than abysmal. The toilets were full. There was no running water, no electricity, and we were running out of drinking water. There was no food. And it was hotter than hell."

The power went out early Monday. The sickest patients, roughly seventy or so, were evacuated by helicopter Sunday. Not until Wednesday morning did more helicopters appear.

Then we see the effect that having a focused effort and access to the funds to make things happen.

Twenty helicopters hired by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) have completed the evacuation of patients and staff from Tulane University Hospital and Clinic, which began four days ago following Hurricane Katrina. The evacuation included close to 200 patients and over 1,200 employees and staff. HCA leadership, coordinating with Gov. Blanco's office, has offered the 20 helicopters at its expense to assist with the evacuation of nearby Charity Hospital's two facilities, as well as University Medical Center, which are not affiliated with HCA. As many as 50 Charity Hospital patients, some severely ill and on ventilators, have already been evacuated by HCA.

I have also been told that HCA was also able to resupply their hospital prior to and while the evacuation was taking place. A huge difference in effectiveness from how FEMA has responded.

This aspect of the emergency will get little notice, and in the end is where most of the difficulties lie. Most of those killed were poor, most of those suffering are poor. Even when you look at the delivery of health care, those who serviced the poor had to wait for the rich to get taken care of. Only then did they get access to the crumbs that were left over.

It is not that we should begrudge HCA for taking care of it's business and people, or that we should be ungrateful for HCA's help, but we should ask why our government could not be as quick and resourceful and responsive as HCA, and why those less fortunate have to pay the price for this failing.

MSNBC has an inside look at how a couple of New Orleans hospitals survived the week after the storm.