“Rita was mostly a non-event,” said Dr. Robert Krance, medical director of the BMT program at Texas Children’s Hospital.  “While initial predictions suggested that Rita would have landfall at Galveston with a straight shot at Houston, the storm gradually veered north and east of here.”

There were 12 patients in a 15-bed unit when the storm passed through.

“Of course with the unpredictability, precautions were taken," Dr. Krance said.  "We cancelled two transplants, for which conditioning was scheduled the day before the hurricane was expected, because of concern that some event might interfere with completion of the conditioning or obtaining the stem cell products.

“The in-patient unit functioned smoothly during this time, but patients were moved into the hall on the night of the hurricane landfall in case the force of high winds exceeded the integrity of the windows.  No windows were broken,” he said.  Of greater concern than wind damage was the potential for flooding.  The medical complex sustained serious flooding in 2001 when Tropic Storm Allison stalled over Houston.

“The hospital has a well-established emergency alert plan and staffing at all levels was at full daily levels," Dr. Krance said.  “Our in-patient unit is a closed unit, and all air is HEPA filtered.  There were no interruptions of service and operations were never effected.  No patients were discharged simply due to the weather.”

Three of the in-patients at the time of the storm were evacuees from New Orleans.  Another six Katrina evacuees have been seen in the out-patient clinic.

“Both ASBMT and the NMDP have contacted us at various times to offer help,” Dr. Krance said.  “We have appreciated the concern and have received information from the NMDP regarding the donor for one of the Katrina transfers.  The NMDP also helped us reschedule donor collections for the two patients who were delayed.”

Updated 10/2/05