Hurricane Redux

"UTMB’s Emergency Room is always open and will remain in operation."

My hospital went into evacuation mode at 7:00 this morning in anticipation of Hurricane Ike. I lifted the quotation above from the official memo. That one statement is the summation of the specialty of emergency medicine.

When all other doors are closed.....our doors are open.
When the clinics are closed......our doors are open.
When it's late at night or late on a holiday..........we'll be here, seeing patients.
When noone else will treat a patient without insurance..........we'll be here, taking care of them.
When it's YOUR child, or spouse, or parent with a heart-stopping, dread-inspiring, life-threatening problem..........trust me, we'll be here.
We may not have have hospital beds to put you in after the emergency treatment,
We may not have nurses in the hospital outside of the emergency department,
We may not be able to guarantee that you can be seen in follow-up,
But, stethoscope in hand,
WE WILL BE HERE.

.......and no little hurricane will change that.