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© 2005 Oxford University Press
NEWS |
Cancer Community Offers Unprecedented Support After Hurricanes Slam U.S. Gulf Coast
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
By all accounts, the cancer care community had never been faced with a situation like the one brought on by Hurricane Katrina. The country's worst natural disaster sent thousands of evacuees out of a deluged city and a battered tristate coastline, displacing an untold number of people—including an unknown number of cancer patients and their physicians.
After finding safety—or at least shelter—confusion took over as patients tried to reach doctors, doctors struggled to find their patients, and doctors attempted to contact each other. Patients requiring chemotherapy or radiation treatments, postsurgical patients awaiting follow-up treatment, and those participating in clinical trials were left without access to their primary care facilities. Researchers left their laboratories and research animals unattended.
Several days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, recognition of the extent of the problem for cancer care sent many federal agencies, cancer organizations, and public and private cancer groups
Finding Patients—and Doctors
Houston Helps, Prepares for Hit
Research Facilities Lost
Lessons Learned