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This week on Healthwatch, we've been talking about the health issues associated with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The cities that welcomed hurricane evacuees had to deal with a massive, sudden influx of patients, many of whom already had health problems. Doctors and students at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas set up an emergency clinic to treat thousands of patients.
Dr. Raymond Fowler, a UT Southwestern emergency medicine specialist, oversaw the medical command center for evacuees in downtown Dallas. He said his team treated twice as many patients as they usually see in the Dallas County hospital's emergency room every day. In addition to treating illness and injuries, doctors also had to help continue patients' care for ongoing problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or even cancer. The doctors' task was made more challenging because they didn't have access to patients' medical records to know how they were being treated before the storm.
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September 2005
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