StoryCorps Hurricane Katrina: Kurtz

From: StoryCorps
Series: StoryCorps
Length: 01:01

Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke tells her husband, Dr. Justin Lundgren, about caring for patients at Charity Hospital in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps Hurricane Katrina: Kurtz
From: StoryCorps

Kurtzburke_small Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke spent five days trapped inside storm-damaged Charity Hospital, caring for patients as they awaited rescue. Speaking in their New Orleans home, Kurtz-Burke tells her husband, Dr. Justin Lundgren, about conditions inside the hospital right after the power generators went out. After a gas leak was discovered in the hospital, Kurtz-Burke wrote a letter to family and friends just in case anything happened. She had 16 patients on her floor of the hospital, along with numerous family members of patients and staff. After the storm, Charity Hospital was shut down and all employees were laid off.

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Piece Description

Dr. Kiersta Kurtz-Burke spent five days trapped inside storm-damaged Charity Hospital, caring for patients as they awaited rescue. Speaking in their New Orleans home, Kurtz-Burke tells her husband, Dr. Justin Lundgren, about conditions inside the hospital right after the power generators went out. After a gas leak was discovered in the hospital, Kurtz-Burke wrote a letter to family and friends just in case anything happened. She had 16 patients on her floor of the hospital, along with numerous family members of patients and staff. After the storm, Charity Hospital was shut down and all employees were laid off.

Transcript

KK: Basically, every way that we ever practiced medicine in the 21st
century in America was gone. And we were constantly explaining what was
going on to the best of our ability. I mean I probably went around to
every patient's room ten times a say to say, "Okay, this is what we know
right now, I just came from a meeting." Because I just wanted them to
feel like they were in the loop, you know?

JL: How was their morale?

KK: As the week went on, I think people felt a little more afraid, and
I really perceived that our patient's felt that they might be left.
That, maybe, people would take off, and so we spent a lot of time
assuring them that they were going to be the first one's to leave, that
we would stay until, you know the very bitter end.

JL: Describe for me what it was like evacuating the hospital, I mean the
actual process, and then, what did you think?

KK: It was probably the...
Read the full transcript