Peabody nurse heads project to help nurses after hurricane disaster
By SUSAN MARSHALL
Staff writer
Two days after Hurricane Katrina exploded across the Gulf Coast Carol Smith of Peabody watched two New Orleans nurses interviewed where they were stranded — on a bridge rising above an endless panorama of murky floodwater. The women said they had lost everything but the clothes on their backs.
Smith, an intensive care unit nurse for 34 years, contemplated their plight as she went to her own job at Memorial Hospital in McPherson. She couldn't imagine suddenly being stripped of everything. She thought of all it would take just to get the lives of two nurses back to normal. And she envisioned the thousands of others left in Katrina's wake.
At work Smith and some colleagues talked about the news from the Gulf area and what was being done for the victims. Smith told of the women on the news who were nurses.
"As we were talking I suddenly knew what I wanted to do," she said. "I knew that for those women to get back into the work force they would need uniforms, scrubs, and stethoscopes. I wanted to help them get back to their profession."
Smith and her colleagues spread the word at Memorial Hospital and set out boxes to collect "gently used scrubs." A day later they had three large boxes.
In the meantime Smith contacted a cousin in Baton Rouge and asked if any of the hospitals in that city could use some help.
"He is a civil engineer," she said. "He had no idea what might be needed at the hospital, but he said he would check and get me some contacts."
Smith's cousin was able to get her the names and phone numbers of human resource officers at two hospitals in Baton Rouge. She arranged to send two boxes of scrubs to the staff at Summit Hospital. The second hospital declined the offer saying they had a "very strict dress code."
"That was OK," said Smith. "By then one of our ER physicians had been contacted by his daughter in Pascagoula, Miss. He was planning to fly his own plane to Mississippi to take medical supplies to the hospital there." The third large box of scrubs went along.
After such quick success acquiring and sending the scrubs, Smith decided to look on the Internet for companies who make scrubs and uniforms and see if they would help.
"The first company was Smart Scrubs in California and Arizona. I ended up talking to the founder, Sue Callaway, and her company shipped seven boxes of used scrubs and clothing and nine cases of new scrubs," said Smith. "All of them went to Summit Hospital in Baton Rouge."
Smart Scrubs even paid the Federal Express charges.
Next Smith contacted Biloxi Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Regional Hospital, both in Biloxi, Miss., and Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss. Each hospital reported 60 to 70 percent of its staff lost everything. They would gladly accept any and all donations.
Smith stayed on the phone and the computer, contacting additional companies willing to help. Scrubbugs sent 413 sets of scrubs to Gulfport, Inexpensive Scrubs followed with an additional 200 sets.
Biloxi Regional Medical Center could not yet be reached by Fed Ex or UPS, but Smith learned that if scrubs could be sent to its sister hospital in Jackson, Miss., Biloxi Regional could send someone to pick them up.
Smith contacted yet another company, Scrub Shopper, and several large boxes valued at more than $3,600 were headed for Biloxi. Smart Scrubs came through again on Sept. 6 with 10 more boxes.
Gulf Coast Regional Hospital at Biloxi also had lost most of its equipment, but by Sept. 12 was up and running, seeing a minimal number of patients.
So Smith began another Internet search for stethoscopes, one of the most basic pieces of equipment for nurses and health care professionals.
"After some phone shuffling, I got in touch with someone at 3M-Littman Company who could help me. The company makes stethoscopes," said Smith. "I asked if they had been contacted by anyone in the Gulf region. The lady said, 'No, how can we help?' I gave her the hospital names, phone numbers, and contact people and 3M got in touch with them and shipped what they needed."
Early on Smith had written out an explanation of her project with hospital names, addresses, and needs noted. She had faxed the request to Kansas hospitals.
"Wesley Medical Center in Wichita and Great Plains Hospital in Dodge City are collecting scrubs," said Smith. "Wesley contacted an HCA facility in Lafayette and shipped several boxes to them.
"I also have contacted Hillsboro Community Medical Center and St. Luke Hospital.
"All the hospitals receiving scrubs and uniforms have agreed to pass on whatever they can't use to other facilities like clinics, nursing homes, or dentists' offices," Smith added.
Smith calls the project "Nurses Caring and Sharing." She uses her time off from her own job in McPherson to continue coordinating a growing list of donors with hospitals in need. (New Orleans hospitals are not currently part of the plan as most are closed and it will be some time before they are up and running.)
"Right now I have no plans to just stop," she said. "As long as there is a need, I can give my time and continue coordinating the project. I'm going to wait and see the results of Hurricane Rita."
Smith added that a company in Canada was willing to donate several hundred pair of scrubs if it could get some help with the shipping costs.
"There is still some work to do," she said.
"I've been thinking too about shoes for the nurses. Who knows? I haven't tried Footlocker yet — they may be next."
Editor's note: At press time a brief fax received from Smith indicates New Balance, a shoe company, is sending shoes to three Mississippi hospitals. Smith has obviously gone from "thinking about shoes" to getting them to nurses in the stricken areas.
