Rescue of HPC Products After Hurricane Katrina

Vincent F. La Russa, PhD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

New York, New York

The week Before in Total Denial

• Friday 12:30 AM August 26th received HPC product

– Got speeding ticked 2:00 am

– Transplant product 8:00pm

• Saturday Back to the BMT Lab

– Final flow data

– “This Hurricane is going to hit..what are you still doing here?”

August 29 2005 Katrina Makes Landfallat New Orleans

Katrina Smashes East New Orleans

Initially Katrina Seems ForgivingDamage Doesn’t Appear as Expected

It Looked Like Tulane Weathered The Storm

But The Damage Was There Initially No One Was Aware of The Potential Extent

The Mississippi River Industrial Canal Levees Breach

River and Lake Pontchartrain Levees Collapse

Satellite View

Water Level Rose Very Fast Within Hours Tulane and Other Hospitals Flooded

Tuesday Evening August 30th 2005All Power is Lost

• Water filled hospital basements and the first floors

• Emergency backup generators were flooded and many hospitals went dark and hot

• All communication with BMT unit was lost

REES Monitoring System Begins to Make Calls August 30th @ 17:37

Saturday September 3rd

Kathy Parovich; Air Liquid Coordinator Can we get LN2 to HPC Products ?

Products in Quarantine Kept in Vapor Phase with 7” – 10 “ LN2 @ < -180 C

Helicopter LN2 to the lab Time is Running out

8 Days After Katrina September 6th AM Received 1st Communication From Dr. Weiner

How to get the LN2 to the lab?

No Land Access to Tulane

8 Days After KatrinaTuesday September 6, 2005 1:02 PM

Tuesday September 6, 2005 1:04 PM

Possibility #1

Possibility #2

Plan 3: FEMA Authorizes Air Space For Helicopters to MD Anderson and Baylor

Bea ready for Last Minute Surprises

• FEMA Cancels Houston Flights by Helicopter

Back-up PlanLN2 Storage at Primate Center

2 Helicopters in Tandem

Approval by TNRPC Director and Assembled Laboratory Personnel

Final Plan 4PM September 06 2005

FEMA Approves tandem flights to Primate Center

September 07 2005 6:55 AM

September 07 20051st Helicopter Landing TNRPC 1:00 PM

Picks up Dr. Eugene Xia

Primate Center Police

Helicopter #1 Picks up Dr. Xia

Cindy Trigg and Dr. Kuai

September 07 2005 1:30 PM“Fred” and Dr. Xia Land Top of Garage

Tulane University Hospital Garage Helicopter Landing Area

Helicopter #1 Lands 1:30 Tulane Parking GarageWith “Fred” and Dr. Xia”

Stairwells Hot and Dark

• No lights• No air conditioning• No elevators• No computers

• No phone

• Flash lights

• Heavy Dry Shippers

• Many Trips

Up 6 flights of stairs in the Dark With Flashlights and >90 F Temp

Where Are The Keys to the LN2 Tanks and Filing Cabinet?

Disaster Plan Rescue DocumentsPriority of HPC products

September 07 2005 3:30 PM CT

Accession Log Chronological

September 07 2005 3:50 PM Update Report to Team

September 07 2005 4:37 PM CT

Tandem Delivery To Primate Center

3 Dry Shippers Per Helicopter

At the end of the Day

We are all Thankful

Team-Work

Tied Together With Heartstrings

After KatrinaBMT Program and Cancer Center Open

• Tulane Hospital reopened 6 months after Katrina – it was the first of the flooded hospitals to reopen

• The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and Laboratory and the Cancer Center clinic reopened a year after Katrina

Lessons Learned

• Have a Team

• Know where each member will go and how to make contact

• Maintain affiliations with out of town sites

• Have enough unrestricted money in an accessible account for the essential team members to regroup

The CAST

Tulane Primate Center Stem Cell Lab

*Eugene Xia, MD, PhD

*Cyndi Tryg, Supervisor

*Xialing Kuai, PhD, Post Doc

Andrew Lackner, PhD, TNRPC Director

TNRPC Police

Lafayette Womens Hospital Volunteers

Rachel Savage, COO

Jane Dejon, Administrator

*Fred Dejon (Jane’s good husband, Volunteer)

*Dave Fando (Fred’s good friend, Volunteer)

Tulane-HCA Administration

Jim Montgomery, CEO

Kim Ryan, COO

The Cast

Tulane Cancer Center

Roy Weiner, MD Director

Alan Miller, MD, PhD Vice President Clinical Affairs

Air Liquid

Jason Walling Sales Manager

*Kathy Perovich, Coordinator

Jason Munson, Service Manager

Michel Craig, Regional Service Manager

MD Anderson Cancer Center

*John McMannis, PhD

Baylor University Texas Children’s Hospital

*Adrian Gee, PhD

Malcom Brenner, MD

The Cast

FEMA

John Scott

Tony Cramer

Todd LaPort

My Father-Inlaw

Morton Blanchard

My Wife

Kathryn Elizabeth La Russa