On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast of the United States. In the wake of unprecedented devastation, Carolina's MED-1, the world's first fully mobile, complete healthcare facility, was deployed to the disaster's front lines.
Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Where the eye of Katrina directly passed, 90% of residential and commercial structures were obliterated, including 102-bed Hancock Medical Center, which had six inches of mud in the second-floor operating room.MED-1 took residence in the parking lot of a Kmart in Waveland for a seven-week engagement as the central medical facility for three Mississippi counties. The unit soon received up to 350 patients daily, hosted multiple surgeries, and treated severe and manifold conditions, including deep space abscess, heart attack, stroke and lung disease.
After forty-nine days, MED-1 had cared for more than 7,500 patients and saved many lives at Katrina's ground zero.
New Orleans, Louisiana
When the levees broke, LSU-Charity Hospital was damaged beyond repair. 80% of the city was flooded; its healthcare infrastructure lay in shambles. Twelve months later, local hospitals still struggled to support an unstable population, swollen from previously-displaced residents returning home.With foresight, the Department of Health and Human Services deployed Carolina's MED-1 to New Orleans for the two-week duration of Mardi Gras 2006. The City of New Orleans EMS and Louisiana State University, in conjunction with Carolina's MED-1, served as a stand alone emergency department focusing on non-trauma ambulance delivered patients. Over 570 patients were treated in MED-1 and ambulance back log and wait times were significantly decreased.
Carolina's MED-1 also provided sixty hospital beds which gave the City of New Orleans the capability to meet surge requirements of a mass casualty event during the Mardi Gras celebration.