In late October, several different hurricanes struck the southern part of the United States, devastating communities and taking out roads, electricity, and parts of hospitals in rural and urban areas for weeks and even months. Respiratory therapists from around the country stepped into action to help patients with all kinds of care and services during the rebuilding and recovery, including Jimmie Riggins, BHS, RRT-ACCS, RRT-NPS, from the HSTVA Medical Center in Columbia, Missouri.
“Through the Veterans Administration’s Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System (DEMPS), individuals from all disciplines throughout the VA system can volunteer for activation when a disaster occurs, including drivers, housekeepers, laborers, and healthcare professionals, like what the Red Cross or other organizations do. There’s an application process; we must take yearly physical training to ensure we can do this. Traveling to the hurricane-affected areas in Asheville, North Carolina, was my first assignment,” said Riggins.
Deployments typically last two weeks, and volunteers work 12 days straight, with one day for traveling to the location and one day for traveling home.
“When the VA deploys people, we are there for support. We don’t take over unless the entire RT department is wiped out, which was not the case. I assisted with the home oxygen program for the Asheville VA, which has about 1,500 home oxygen patients. When I arrived, they gave me a list of 787 individuals they couldn’t reach but knew they needed oxygen support,” said Riggins. “So instead of their home oxygen coordinator devoting time, I did 9-10 hours a day on the phone trying to locate these people. The roads in many areas were damaged, so it was nearly impossible to attempt to see patients at their homes. The other two RTs with me were stationed in the ER to swap out oxygen tanks because many people didn’t have power. We worked together to do whatever we could locally to provide them with cylinders.”
“The efforts of the local Asheville VA team, including Brady Ballard, the Chief of the Respiratory Therapy Department, and Tina Kessinger, RRT, their lead RT, were outstanding and made things run as smoothly as possible. They deserve all the credit,” said Riggins. “Most of the staff had been affected by the storm in one way or another, but they just kept working and getting through it, helping as many people as possible. It was heartbreaking, but I was glad that I was able to go down and help make the most impact I could.”
Another RT who was deployed to the Asheville VA was Neva Chaffins, RRT, “Going to the Asheville VAMC was a very humbling experience seeing the devastation and destruction and hearing people talk about what they experienced and lost. I helped by calling the home oxygen patients to see if they had electricity and if they needed their empty O2 tanks replaced or anything else. I also helped by exchanging low or dead batteries to the patients that had POC with fully charged batteries and exchanging the empty O2 tanks for full tanks when patients would bring them to the hospital. I also helped with inpatient duties to try and help relieve any stress from the therapists. I went to Asheville because they needed help, and I feel if there are people who need help, we should help in any way we can because we never know when we will need help.”
If you are interested in helping with future deployments to natural disaster areas, visit: Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System (DEMPS) – VHA Office of Emergency Management (va.gov) or ASPR Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (hhs.gov).
