Hurricane Ike: More Learnings

There are some more learnings from Hurricane Ike that I have been informed of or have come to realize.

I got a small puncture wound on Saturday afternoon (a week after the storm) and knowing that tetanus is one of the few medical diseases that is still 100% fatal, I called around to find a place that could just give me that one simple injection.  The process was complicated by the lack of internet.  But after hours of searching, nobody seemed to have any tetanus vaccine that was still usable (an internet search indicates the tetanus toxoid needs to be stored at a temperature of 2°-8°C [35-42°F]).  It was hard to believe that not one of the Houston area Redi-Clinics  had a single dosage that survived the storm.

Boy, is that scary!  As the days pass and (I believe) exceed the incubation period of tetanus, I begin to believe that I will not die because of the wound.  But I look on my experience as a red flag that should not be ignored.  The prospect of finding any person injured during or after a storm needing a tetanus (or hepatitis or other) shot and not having one available because somebody didn't consider it important to have a generator to keep vaccine at the right temperature borders on criminal negligence in my opinion.  considering the likelihood of storm-related injuries that might warrant such treatment.  Wouldn't you think that the medical facilities would arrange to safeguard  CRITICAL treatment supplies like tetanus and hepatitis?  Does this mean that our medical capabilities are so short-sighted that they don't realize the need to protect supplies that might well save lives?  I mean, that is why the FEMA trucks with water, ice, and MREs were not staged in Houston when Ike blew into town, but were located several hours away in safer locations.

Another learning from areas much more devastated than Prestonwood concerns "important papers."  Some of the people who lived in apartments that were destroyed by Ike had to paw through the debris of their apartments looking for utility bills to "prove" that they had lived there in order to get relief (supplies and insurance claims). 

So neighbors, the learnings for today are:

1. Before a storm, make sure your immunizations are up to date (I didn't plan to get punctured)--- this includes keeping up with when you last HAD the immunizations, as getting them too frequently is also bad.
2. Stick a recent utility bill into your "important papers" folder, and check the contents of that folder every time a storm even enters the Gulf.

We'll talk again later.

Sam Whitley

for PFHO