Hospitals in hurricane flood zone struggle to save lives

As floodwaters rose around Charity Hospital in New Orleans, rescuers needed their own rescuing.

Charity’s backup generator was running out of diesel fuel. Nurses hand-pumped ventilators for patients who could not breathe. Doctors canoed supplies in from three nearby hospitals.

“It’s like being in a Third World country. We’re trying to work without power. Everyone knows we’re all in this together. We’re just trying to stay alive,” said Mitch Handrich, a registered nurse manager at the hospital - Louisiana’s biggest.

Hospitals across the city faced deteriorating conditions yesterday after two embankments broke, sending water coursing through the streets of the Big Easy.

An estimated 80 per cent of the below-sea-level city was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said 2,500 patients would be evacuated from hospitals in Orleans Parish, but it was not immediately clear where they would be moved.