Chicago Nurses and Doctors Deployed for Hurricane Relief Efforts

A team of approximately 75 medical professionals from the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County have been deployed to Beaumont, Texas, to assist with hurricane relief efforts.

More than 400 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from the three hospitals were readied a month ago when they gathered on Labor Day to register as volunteers and update their immunizations following Hurricane Katrina.

Since then, the hospitals have been waiting for the federal government to determine when and where the volunteers might be needed.

Late last Wednesday, the government requested volunteers who could be ready to deploy within 48 hours.

The volunteer staff -- mostly nurses and a few doctors -- departed Chicago on commercial airline flights Oct. 1 and 2. They will be working for approximately two weeks in the badly damaged gulf region.

The medical professionals were scheduled to arrive in Beaumont, located approximately 20 miles northwest of Port Arthur, Texas, to receive their assignments.

They packed boots, scrubs, stethoscopes and sleeping bags and were prepared to work long hours in austere conditions -- possibly housed in tents with portable toilets, no showers and military ready-to-eat meals.

"These volunteers are to be commended for dropping everything on very short notice to assist with the relief efforts," said Dr. Timothy Erickson, professor of emergency medicine at UIC.

Dr. Robert Simon, executive chairperson of emergency medicine for Rush and Stroger, Dr. Joseph Flaherty, dean of the UIC College of Medicine, and Dr. Larry Goodman, president and CEO of Rush, led the collaboration between the three hospitals, which resulted in the creation of a database and a system for coordinating medical volunteers for the hurricane relief efforts.

"Due to the tragic events of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we now have a ready response team of volunteers from the Illinois Medical District who may also be needed for future disasters both locally and nationally," said Erickson.