Recoil Offgrid – August-September 2019

086

ISSUE 32

What Do You Do When Conventional

Medical Care is Unavailable?

the hurricane, less than half of those 67 facilities were

operational. Are you prepared for that scenario? Do you

have a plan?

I asked three experts in their respective fields what

advice they’d give in a situation where disaster has de-

stroyed medical facilities. Mark Linderman is a crisis risk

manager for the CDC and takes a community approach

to preparation. Kerry Davis is a former medic and nurse,

and is the CEO of Dark Angel Medical. He focuses on

teaching individuals skill sets and developing a plan to

survive. J.R. Grounds is the leader of the Civilian Crisis

Response Team and agrees with both Mark and Kerry

in that individual skill sets are important; however, being

flexible and working together are just as important.

WITHOUT

A H O S P I TA L

W

e all do our best to be prepared in

an emergency; however, there are

always things we don’t expect that

may come up. We often take medi-

cal care for granted when disaster

hits. The hospitals and physicians are usually there when

we need them, but what happens when the hospital

has been destroyed by a natural or manmade disaster?

Remember Joplin, Missouri, in 2011 when an F5 tornado

destroyed the hospital there? How about Hurricane Maria

in 2017 that rendered 65 of 67 hospitals in Puerto Rico

non-operational in the first few days after the disaster?

There were 3.5-million people seeking help with only

two functioning hospitals on the island. One month after

By Dr. David Miller

Saint John’s

Hospital

following a

deadly and

destructive

F5 tornado on

May 22, 2011 in

Joplin, Missouri