Kelly Burkholder-Allen gets to spend her 10th wedding anniversary
Thursday in the Virgin islands. But it won't exactly he a romantic
Caribbean vacation.
Ms. Burkholder-Allen will leave her husband and 3-year-old son
at home to live in a tent on St. Thomas and work long hours helping
the victims of Hurricane Marilyn. A registered nurse, she is
among more than 35 members of the Toledo Area Disaster Medical
Assistance Team which left Toledo Express Airport yesterday for
St. Thomas to help after the disaster. The team members are volunteers
in the truest sense. They're using vacation time or unpaid time
away from their regular hospital jobs to help people they have
never met on distant islands.
"Every one of us is leaving someone," said Mg. Burkholder-Allen, Supervisory nurse specialist for the assistance team. "I'm going to miss them, but my husband knows how important this is to me."
On St. Thomas alone, six people were reported killed and 80 per
cent of the homes damaged or destroyed. The hospital there also
was flooded, its windows' blown in, and electricity supply erratic.
Helping after a hurricane is nothing new to the Toledo medical
volunteers. They also responded to the Hurricane Andrew disaster
in South Florida in 1992, treating nearly 1,000 people in their
field hospitals and making more than 3,300 patient contacts.
The team is made up of doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians,
a cook, maintenance workers, security personnel, and support staff.
The Toledo team, sponsored by Medical College of Ohio and sup-ported
by Toledo Hospital, St. Vincent Medical Center, and St. Charles
Hospital, is one of about 22 such teams in the country. Members
must be ready to deploy in 12 to 24 hours and be self-sufficient
for three days. Officials yesterday didn't know how long they
would be in St. Thomas. It's a sacrifice all are ready to make
in order to help others, according to Barbara Billow, public information
officer for the team. The group holds monthly meetings and conducts
drills to be prepared. Dr. Paul Rega, the medical commander,
said the team would establish a base compound at or near a hospital
and, if needed, provide outreach teams.
The local team was notified between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Sunday that it was needed with orders to be at the air national guard hangar yesterday morning. The workers were rushing around preparing their gear and equipment, anxiously awaiting word on when a C-130 cargo plane would pick them up. "We're in our hurry-up-and-wait mode," Dr. Rega said. They had to wait until last evening for the cargo plane to land at Toledo Express. The volunteer workers will not only help treat and stabilize people hurt during the hurricane, but assist those who are injured while trying to clean up the mess and repair their homes, Dr. Rega added. Almost every contingency is covered for the emergency team, including the workers' reaction to the stress and long hours.
Rachel White, a registered nurse, is part of the critical incident stress management team.
"We'll look for signs of over-fatigue or additional stress or an extreme change of behavior," she said. Dr. Rega said other concerns for the rescue workers are tuberculosis, hepatitis A, and dengue fever, which is carried by mosquitoes. Ms. Burkholder-Allen said the mission is both anxiety provoking and exciting. "We never know what to expect," she said, pointing out that most of the team members are involved in emergency medicine. "But the unexpected is what we're comfortable with." Linda Phillips, a registered nurse and disaster volunteer with the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, was scheduled to leave Toledo Express for St. Thomas this afternoon. The local Salvation Army, which has relief workers on standby, is accepting contributions for the relief effort.