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No Calm from the Stormby Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.
Instead, the Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor of medicine; his wife, Dr. Anita Alvarez-Cruz, a BCM geriatrics fellow, and their sons, Roberto, 11 and Sebastian, 7, found themselves stranded in a luxury hotel in the midst of the greatest natural disaster ever to hit the United States—Hurricane Katrina. In retrospect, Andrade thinks he may have been cavalier about the risk. "I thought the meeting would be over on Sunday (September 4), and we could leave before the storm hit," he said. "I come from Ecuador, where hurricanes are not a problem." The meeting's organizers even decided to end it early, but when Andrade checked on airlines, the flight scheduled for his wife and children had been canceled. Attempts to find rental cars or different ways out of the city were to no avail. He and many of the physicians at the meeting found themselves stranded. He and the 1,300 other guests at the Ritz-Carlton weathered the storm in its lobbies and ballrooms with the staff working hard to assure their comfort. The next morning, September 2, dawned bright and clear. The meeting's organizers were planning to send buses to get them out when the levees broke. "The city was afloat," said Andrade. "It was not safe to evacuate the hotel." Then they lost electricity and the water became contaminated. Food began to run out, and people got sick. The 15 doctors in the hotel organized a small infirmary with drugs police helped them obtain from local pharmacies. The doctors worked in shifts. One day, the clinic saw 100 patients. They provided antibiotics to the police who were working in the water that was becoming more and more contaminated and smelly. Two things kept Andrade on the track. He had to appear strong for his children, and his work with the patients in the infirmary gave him a purpose and kept him focused. "Every day we thought we would be leaving the next," he said. Rescuers came September 1, and he and the other doctors helped organize the first evacuation. The rescuers said they would be back. Then the buses were commandeered for other work, and Andrade began calling his BCM department for help, but there was none to be had. At 11 a.m. on September 2, Andrade put his youngest child on his shoulder and his arms around his wife and older child and waded out into the water. They ended up at the Marriott, which was dry but deserted. All 600 people with him waited in the lobby with their dogs, cats and sick relatives and friends. When one elderly woman fainted and began having chest pains, all they could do was put an aspirin in her mouth and a nitroglycerine patch on her chest. Andrade felt terribly abandoned. His children held his hands and asked, "Are we going to die?" Andrea replied, 'No. We are leaving.'" It was 1 p.m. before the buses arrived. Soon they were on the road to Baton Rouge, which had swelled in size by 500,000 people. There was no gasoline and no rental cars. In desperation, Andrade came back in a jet chartered by the meeting organizers. He raced to the kennel to pick up the family dog. "I knew that the dog was 'medicine' for our children. The kids were smiling after that. In the supermarket, they looked around in amazement at the abundance of food and drink." His children have returned to school, and he and his wife are back at work. Work is good medicine, and his Thomas Street Clinic duties help. A week after the storm, though, Andrade still dreamed of dark, fetid water. |
Patient CareResearchThe Next Step in Cancer Research EducationHalf a Century Later... They're Still Giving Back Community ServiceFrom Despair to Hope: BCM Responds to Katrina Alumni & DevelopmentThe Vietnamese Cowboy and the Race Car Driver A Fortunate Life... A Fight Against Cancer College NewsA New Door for the East Campus New Museum to Showcase Maestro of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine: Making a Difference in the Community
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Volume 1, Issue 3, Fall 2005 |
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| Last modified: October 10, 2008 |
Dr. Roberto Andrade expected to combine a brief end-of-summer family vacation with an HIV update meeting in New Orleans.