After the Flood: Life in
Louisiana
“Public Health
Service officers from many different parts of the United
States (New York, California, Oregon, Alaska, Maryland) came
together and formed a cohesive unit that served superbly
with state and local authorities to provide medical and social
services for hurricane evacuees.”
— Dr. Herman Rosen (October 2005)
|
Hirsch
Coliseum, Shreveport, LA. General Shelter run
by the American Red Cross. |
Notes and Images from the Field
By Joan Baum Ph.D.
|
Christus
Schumpert Hospital in Bossier City
houses federal workers. |
Eight years in the
United States Air Force as a doctor at the rank of major
gave the much-decorated Dr. Wendy W. Tong an advantage, she
believes, in carrying out her duties as Regional Medical
Director of Disaster Relief operations in Louisiana, with
particular administrative responsibilities for the Bossier
Special Needs Shelter in Region VII (in the northwestern part
of the state). She had signed up to be, as she modestly puts
it, “a worker bee,” but six days after her arrival
in the hurricane-torn area for a two-week tour of duty, found
herself, unexpectedly, Regional Medical Director, after her
predecessor, a nurse, had left. The military, she says, gave
her training in leadership but also experience in how to follow
and how to be a team player. And it gave her, as well, her
solid grounding in disaster response by way of simulated exercises
regularly conducted for various kinds of catastrophes, though,
as everyone has noted, not for Katrina! The dynamic, take-charge
major adds, however, that the military also provided her with
an understanding of “the cultural environment” of
the public health service and other government organizations.
In fact, Dr. Wong’s new administrative position would
prove even more complicated than she imagined because she would
be overseeing both public and private efforts, employees and
volunteers, even though she accepted the two-week assignment
on behalf of Northwest Medical Teams International, a faith-based
organization active in disaster relief. The group paid for
her airfare, meals and lodging, but then Dr. Wong was on her
own, with a 24/7 mission to support patients in the Bossier
Special Needs Center—those who needed physician care
as well as assistance from nurses and social service professionals.
|
Kids
playing in a hall of the Special Needs shelter. |
A quick study and a
forceful though sensitive administrator, Dr. Wong clearly
sized up the advantages of arriving at a site that had suffered
an “unprecedented” disaster.
With no official job description on the books, no formal directive,
she saw her “challenge” as an invitation to take
the initiative and define her role and interpret her mandate
generously. If such a reading of her responsibility meant that
she would be “going out on a limb,” so be it. But
clearly intuition as well as training kicked in, as she assessed
resources and capabilities. She created a team of physicians
and nurses, held daily discussions with staff, communicated
constantly with headquarters in Baton Rouge. “Each day
was different,” each participating support agency unique.
But she also began to look at the wider situation. She soon
determined that her mandate would extend beyond the Bossier
special needs shelter (80 people) and embrace where she could
the needs of general shelters (2000 people), and of private
facilities set up by churches and schools (approximately 200–300
people).
|
Part
of the Special Needs shelter. |
Meaningful and extended
service—“to have an impact,
to make a long-lasting difference”—seems always
to have guided Dr. Wong’s choice of career. She speaks
of her emotional and intellectual heritage, first, from her “traditional
Chinese family” (everyone is either a doctor or a lawyer)
and then of responsibility that deepened when she attended
Georgetown University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree
in biology and a medical degree, and where she somehow also
found time to be a teaching assistant in English, a classroom
trainer and curriculum designer for volunteer efforts in less
developed countries, and then a community liaison and leader
for several states in their inner-city outreach programs on
substance abuse, domestic violence, social services and health
care.
The Oath of Hippocrates
states “whatsoever house I enter
there will I go for the benefit of the sick, refraining from
all wrongdoing or corruption.” Clearly, for Wendy Tong,
M.D. still in her 30s, there have been many houses in many
countries where she has assumed the obligations of the Hippocratic
ethical code. With a phenomenal record of overseeing medical
services and supplies for thousands of people all over the
world, Dr. Wendy Tong humbly says she feels “honored” at
being privy to patient confidences and at being granted an
opportunity to pursue a profession that brings her “joy.” She
will be off soon to Sri Lanka for more mission-oriented work
and then sometime later add another title to her name: she’ll
be getting married. #
|
 |
Wendy
Tong, M.D. |
Dr.
Herman Rosen, CAPT, USPHS, assisting in Special Needs
shelter in Bossier City, Louisiana |
