...it really created a lot of good for us at the Institute.
Gail Stuart, Ph.D., R.N., Institute of Psychiatry
“Perhaps the most interesting thing was that this was a devastating event. And yet, it really created a lot of good for us at the Institute. And, I think that's the impression I come away with at the end of the day. And so, the lesson learned from that is: You have to anticipate crises, whether they're hurricanes, or other kinds of disasters, natural or man-made. But you have to come out in a better place, and you have to think about that beforehand. And, that's basically how you deal with the people part of it. Because if the people work together, and they feel like they're all in this together, then I think, you're going to have a much better resolution than if every person is like an isolate, and feeling very alienated from the larger context of things.”
It made me appreciate what I have a lot more than before...
M. David McDaniel, Children’s Hospital Pharmacy
“It made me appreciate what I have a lot more than before and I think it did that for all of us that were here and that went through it. There was no ‘one person suffered more than anybody else’ kind of thing because we were all in it together and everybody here at work were all in it together. And if you escaped any injury or any damage to your house, then they stood up and covered those…that had to go take care of things… I mean I still have friends, still work with a couple of people…that I actually worked with at that point. And it formed a bond that I never had before, and I’ve never had since because they were there when I needed them, and I was there when they needed me. So it’s not something I would want to necessarily go through again, but I’m not sad, I’m not disappointed that I did go through it because it taught me a lot about human nature. It taught me about just what we as individuals, can really do for each other.”
“I think we did very well considering we’ve never been faced with anything like that before. Just as in any other situation you have lessons learned and emergency plans have been improved since then. We had too many people there, if I had to say the one thing that we didn't know. We had a lot of people that didn't necessarily have a specific function to do right at that moment but we weren't sure so we had all these people there and that has been reduced. We don't bring nearly as many people in.”
“We still think of it as if it was yesterday. It’s much more vivid to us and hurricane season starts and I’m much more primed to pay attention to what's happening with hurricanes and what do we need to do.”
H. Biemann Othersen, Jr., M.D., Children’s Hospital
I always thought the medical university did a good job of preparing for, meeting and cleaning up after the hurricane. You know you always look for the silver lining—the thing that’s good. And the hurricane was good in some ways…it made people think of other people. There’s always, ‘How can you help the other person? How can you all work together and get this done?’ And it does foster a different attitude. So there was good to Hugo.
Everybody had two problems at least. They had problems at their job, and they had problems at home, because everybody was affected. Everybody’s trying to balance this thing of taking care of their family at home…and then coming into the hospital and trying to do their jobs there for the patients. I guess everybody was kind of heroes, because everybody did both.
