HHS medical teams provide care after Hurricane Michael
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HHS medical teams provide care after Hurricane Michael.
[Video begins with Ron Piedrahita, Public Affairs - Health Communications Specialist in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) which is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services speaking outside a mobile medical base in the Panhandle area of Florida. The video continues with interviews of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medical Officers Dr. Paul Biddinger and Dr. Harold Fenster from inside a few of the mobile medical bases.]
Ron Piedrahita: I’m Ron with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Hurricane Michael has caused substantial damage to the Panhandle area of Florida and that damage includes several hospitals. HHS has established these mobile medical bases of operation outside of these hospitals to assist them with the medical care that their community needs. They’re staffed by medical professionals from the National Disaster Medical System and these teams, Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, come from the country to help communities when the states request that help.
Dr. Paul Biddinger: We’re set up in the Dr. parking lot of a hospital that has undergone sever damage in the storm. This hospital and the other hospital are the two hospitals in Panama City and they have lost all of their inpatient care and are trying to stay open with their emergency departments.
Dr. Harold Fenster: He cut himself with the chainsaw. Instead of suturing it closed, we debrided it meaning we took off the dead tissue. We irrigated it with an antiseptic solution and then I’m gonna pack it with a antiseptic solution in gauze.
Dr. Paul Biddinger: Both hospitals have been trying really hard to make sure they serve the community and have kept their emergency departments open, but this is quite a struggle given all of the challenges from the storm. We’re here to help them.
[The video concludes with a non-descript background followed by the Department of Health and Human Services logo, caption and voice-over narrative, “Produced at U.S. taxpayer expense by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”]
