Katrina

-
Day two of Disaster theory was a very informative day. There was lots of stuff about theories, and disaster models, and other stuff that's not extremely interesting. We also had a discussion about disaster recovery and comparing that of first world to third world nations. We were given our assignment for this module, which so far seems very doable.

Before lunch we watched two short videos about hurricane Katrina. This is definitely an excellent example of everything we want to and are going to learn. What I didn't expect was while these videos played, I suddenly wished for a hole to open up in the floor, so that I could drop into it.
I felt so full of shame watching Americans struggle without hope from the government or each other. I watched helplessly at footage of the superdome and convention center that was simply awful. I know Katrina was awful, but for the first time I felt like I really stuck out as an American. They even showed all the moronic clips of Brown and Bush making stupid excuses about the response and scale of the problem and I just wanted to bang my head against the table.

In the end, no one called me out on it for which I was grateful, though we did have an interesting chat about it during lunch, as my British classmates were curious about my thoughts and I was curious about theirs. I was expecting to discuss Katrina, and I'm sure we will more in the future, but I wasn't expecting to feel so guilty about it.

Comments

Unknown said…
They really were idiots, weren't they?

I have a feeling if I were sitting in that classroom with you I'd be reacting much the same way...
14 October, 2009
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dueling Blogs

-
I have the immense privilege to be sitting right across from Maddog Medic in the flesh. We aren't speaking, though he is listening to me. Want to solve this riddle? He is transcribing an interview he did with me for his blog at this very moment. And I too am blogging at this very moment! How crazy?! I am stationed this week at the EMS today conference to stock up on professional wheelings and dealings and learn some stuff. This is a wonderful conference full of networking and new products and I learned already that one dose of glucagon costs $130. That's out of control! I cannot wait to catch up on disaster literature and EMS tricks of the trade and get as many free pens as I can at the expo tomorrow.  As for now, I'm headed to a class on smart stuff and pediatric breathing problems.  I am surrounded by EMS nerds and I love it! I spent the day learning about things above my pay grade such as how to read a chest x-ray and how to differentiate between subarachnoi...
Click for More

Clothing Removal

-
Image
Last week I had a patient who fell from her horse while jumping at a show. When I got there the BLS crew had immobilized her and, well, that was about it. She was complaining of neck pain and at that moment couldn't remember what had happened. I used my horsey knowledge to build up a healthy rapport with a scared patient. In general, not a lot was wrong with her. My biggest problem was that she was on the backboard and still had on all of her fancy English riding clothes. I made my best efforts to get off her button up shirt with high collar and black outer riding jacket, but it caused her pain, and then I made it worse. Worse than falling off your horse, worse than the public embarrasment of having an ambulance called for you, worse than defenitly losing your show class, was the stupid paramedic who cut off your expensive riding clothes. I, too, had never felt worse for cutting someones clothes off. She cried and shrieked and you would have thought I was punching her in the gut. I...
Click for More

The Race

-
Sometimes this job is like a race. Like you're carrying this person on your back, and it's a messy race. You're tripping and sweating and you almost drop them. It's bouncy and there's trash everywhere. And if you can just get them over that line. To the line and throw them over. Throw them over and into the ER, you're obligation is fulfilled. Your job is done. You've won the race. And for a long time, that was it. Mission accomplished and I wasn't responsible for anything else. I didn't care about anything else. Get them to the hospital.  Dust my hands off and pat myself on the back. But somehow, they crept in. What did happen?  Did they live?  For the first time I asked myself.  I began to bring them home. I put them on a shelf and they stared down at me. They said, did you run fast enough?  Did you fall?  Did you drop me?  You threw me onto this island- over your line, but was it salvation?  I left in a hel...
Click for More