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Clinicians on call when disaster strikes

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Members of the Pediatric Disaster Response Team.

magine getting a call one night, just as you are drifting off to sleep, and being told that by early the next morning, you must have two bags packed—one for personal gear, another full of medical supplies. You must get yourself to a staging area, be bussed to an Air Force base and endure a 26-hour flight to a hurricane-ravaged island, where you and a few colleagues will erect giant tents to create a self-sufficient hospital.

Welcome to Pediatric Disaster Response Team MA-1.

Past Disaster Response Team deployments Hurricane Andrew - Florida Hurricane Marilyn - St. Thomas Winter ice storm - upstate New York Kosovo refugee screening - Fort Dix, NJ Massive earthquake - Istanbul, Turkey World Trade Center - Ground Zero, NYC Super Typhoon Pongsonya - Guam Medical support - Atlanta Olympics

The team, made up of doctors and nurses from across the region who deploy to areas in need in times of disaster, has about a dozen active members from Children's, but they're looking to grow. –It's not for everyone,” says team member and Emergency Department nurse Allen Bouchard, RN. –But for some it's a rewarding way to help people in a truly desperate situation. You also learn many skills that you don't have exposure to in your regular practice.” The team is particularly in need of critical care nurses, medical staff and surgeons with a knack for improvising and functioning independently.

Bouchard says that it takes a certain personality to thrive in a disaster. –You have to be flexible and self-sufficient, because you may be suturing a wound one moment and lugging a generator through the mud the next,” he says. If you are a clinician and would like to learn more about the team, e-mail allen.bouchard@childrens.harvard.edu. —CM

More information: www.ma1boston.com.

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