Eight hospital patients receiving medical care in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been evacuated to Mississippi hospitals after Hurricane Maria has left many of Puerto Rico’s medical services hospitals in critical condition.

The G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery VA Medical Center announced Wednesday that the patients have arrived via the Allen C. Thompson Air National Guard Base Field and are being assisted by staff from the Mississippi State Department of Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Air National Guard’s 172d Airlift Wing along with the medical center.

Mississippi State Department of Health spokeswoman Liz Sharlot said the department has been receiving evacuees from areas of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico since Monday.

“So far there have been five flights bringing patients – eight so far – and another flight is expected tonight bringing in another patient,” Sharlot said in an email Wednesday.

Dr. David Walker, director of the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery VA Medical Center, said the patients will be spread out across hospitals within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Disaster Medical System. This includes 13 hospitals located in Madison, Hinds, Rankin and Warren Counties, Walker said.

While the identities or information on patients’ conditions were not immediately available, Walker described the evacuees as critical care and noncritical care patients needing a medical or surgical bed, surgical patients who will need an intensive care unit or patients needing a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“One family member accompanied a patient pregnant with twins,” Walker said. “I believe (Batson Children’s Hospital) would be managing NICU patients.”

Walker said missions are updated each day, and health officials typically don’t find out how many patients will be arriving until three to six hours beforehand. He said flights that arrived in Mississippi on Wednesday originated from either Saint Croix or San Juan.

“This system is for the United States and its territories,” Walker said. “It was set up for Hurricane Harvey, but patients evacuated remained in the state of Texas. For Irma, there were evacuations, but the system wasn’t used in those cases because patients remained in-state.”

The State Department of Health will remain on alert to receive patients for the near future, Sharlot said.

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

Mississippi hospitals take in evacuees from Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

by Kendra Ablaza, Mississippi Today
September 27, 2017

<h1>Mississippi hospitals take in evacuees from Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands</h1> <p class="byline">by Kendra Ablaza, Mississippi Today <br />September 27, 2017</p> <p>Eight hospital patients receiving medical care in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been evacuated to Mississippi hospitals after Hurricane Maria has left many of Puerto Rico's medical services hospitals in critical condition.</p> <p>The G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery VA Medical Center announced Wednesday that the patients have arrived via the Allen C. Thompson Air National Guard Base Field and are being assisted by staff from the Mississippi State Department of Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Air National Guard’s 172d Airlift Wing along with the medical center.</p> <p>Mississippi State Department of Health spokeswoman Liz Sharlot said the department has been receiving evacuees from areas of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico since Monday.</p> <p>“So far there have been five flights bringing patients – eight so far – and another flight is expected tonight bringing in another patient,” Sharlot said in an email Wednesday.</p> <p>Dr. David Walker, director of the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery VA Medical Center, said the patients will be spread out across hospitals within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Disaster Medical System. This includes 13 hospitals located in Madison, Hinds, Rankin and Warren Counties, Walker said.</p> <p>While the identities or information on patients’ conditions were not immediately available, Walker described the evacuees as critical care and noncritical care patients needing a medical or surgical bed, surgical patients who will need an intensive care unit or patients needing a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.</p> <p>“One family member accompanied a patient pregnant with twins,” Walker said. “I believe (<em>Batson</em> Children’s Hospital) would be managing NICU patients.”</p> <p>Walker said missions are updated each day, and health officials typically don’t find out how many patients will be arriving until three to six hours beforehand. He said flights that arrived in Mississippi on Wednesday originated from either Saint Croix or San Juan.</p> <p>“This system is for the United States and its territories,” Walker said. “It was set up for Hurricane Harvey, but patients evacuated remained in the state of Texas. For Irma, there were evacuations, but the system wasn’t used in those cases because patients remained in-state."</p> <p>The State Department of Health will remain on alert to receive patients for the near future, Sharlot said.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2017/09/27/mississippi-hospitals-take-evacuees-puerto-rico-u-s-virgin-islands/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=97184&ga=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p>

1