Norman McSwain, M.D., chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and professor at Tulane Medical School, on behalf of all the unsung heroes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Norman McSwain, M.D., trauma director at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and a professor at Tulane Medical School, is accepting the National Public Health Heroes Award on behalf of the many heroes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. While the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast, many "ordinary" people met the disaster with acts of bravery and selflessness, saving lives and offering hope to victims. McSwain himself stayed at Charity Hospital caring for patients during the crisis, and waded through contaminated floodwaters to try and find help for the thousands of patients trapped in the hospital without food or water. When the hospital was evacuated, McSwain was one of the very last to leave.

Stories of unrecognized heroes continue to come from the survivors of the disaster: nurses who comforted desperate patients in dark hospitals, and in some cases took over for medical ventilators by forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients; people in the wards who squeezed oxygen bags every five seconds to keep patients alive; medical personnel who carried patients up flights of stairs to safety; and doctors who improvised medical procedures in the absence of electricity, supplies, food, or water.

In the days following the storm, more heroes immediately came forward, in the form of doctors, nurses, EMTs, coast guard personnel, rescue workers, and countless others, who rushed to the devastated area to evacuate the survivors, care for the sick and injured, and rescue those still trapped by the flood. Some took boats door to door, searching for the living, while others ferried evacuees by helicopter round the clock. They provided medical care with few supplies, and brought water and food to those imprisoned by the storm. Many came unbidden, and few have been named or recognized, but all were called by the need to alleviate human suffering. Many owe their lives and families to these people, the heroes of Hurricane Katrina.

 

AWARD PRESENTER Larry Brilliant, M.D., M.P.H.

Larry Brilliant has led a diverse career in public health and technology. After training as a physician, Brilliant began a spiritual quest in India that resulted in work with the World Health Organization smallpox program. In a little over two years, Brilliant's team achieved what many deemed impossible, vaccinating more than 2 billion people and essentially eradicating the disease from the subcontinent. After returning to the United States, Brilliant founded the Seva Foundation dedicated to curing blindness in Asia and Africa. The organization has established local eye-care facilities, medical training programs, and manufacturing plants that have resulted in the restoration of sight for hundreds of thousands of people. Brilliant also cofounded one of the first Internet companies, and was the architect of the WELL, one of the first online communities. Brilliant is a member of the School of Public Health Policy Advisory Council and a past recipient of the International Public Health Hero award. In February he was named the first executive director of Google.org, the philanthropic organization founded by Google.

 

THE CHALLENGE Responding to and Preparing for Disasters

Hurricane Katrina brought into stark relief the failings of the disaster response system in the United States. As government institutions and individual citizens struggle to absorb the lessons of this tragedy, epidemics, natural disasters, and bioterrorism continue to pose significant threats to the safety of people across the country. The public health community will continue to be pivotal in the fight to protect the population from a host of disasters, both natural and man-made. Many government public health agencies are working to improve disaster plans, and to develop ways to supply aid to citizens in the event of a catastrophe. Public health leaders are sounding the need for better collaboration and communication across organizations. However, serious concerns exist about the ability of the public health infrastructure to cope with a variety of calamities, from an intentional release of anthrax, to an influenza pandemic, to a massive earthquake. In order to be adequately prepared for a disaster, more work is needed to develop a cohesive strategy for responding to calamitous events. Along with preparing for disasters, researchers and physicians continue to work towards preventing epidemics from occurring. The global effort has already led to the eradication of some diseases and minimized the impact of others, but more work is needed to combat epidemics like HIV and emerging diseases like Avian Bird Flu. Continued investigation into the transmission and containment of epidemics has the potential to save countless lives.

 

THE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONDS

The Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness provides training and resources to students, public health professionals, and organizations in order to prepare for and respond to disasters such as disease outbreaks and bioterrorism. Some of the center's efforts include:

• Offering free and affordable training to frontline public health workers and students in emergency operations planning, field epidemiology, and infection control
  
  
• Developing disaster response plans for a variety of organizations, and assessing the plans through exercises designed to simulate microbial threats and other disasters
  
  
• Providing training in the Incident Command System, or ICS, an organizational tool that allows responders from different areas to communicate with each other effectively in an emergency
  
  
• Training professionals and organizations in the most effective ways to provide disaster aid to vulnerable populations