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Cairo paramedic brings relief to storm-weary Gulf

By Colin DeVries

CATSKILL — On the evening of Aug. 31, 2008, America held it’s breath. Waiting to see if Hurricane Gustav would parallel the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina — only this time something was very different.

Aside from the weakening of Hurricane Gustav to a Category 2 — Katrina was a Category 3 when it made landfall — the Federal Emergency Management Agency spearheaded the evacuation of approximately 1.9 million Louisiana residents, the largest officiated exodus in the history of Louisiana.

One undaunted contributor of that effort — which was in stark contrast of the Hurricane Katrina evacuation effort — was former Cairo resident Patrick Patterson Jr.

Patterson, who currently lives in Pelican Rapids, Minn., brought his skills as a certified paramedic to the Gulf Coast to evacuate the sick and infirm at local hospitals and nursing homes in Orange, Texas.

A “strike team” from Patterson’s ambulance company, Ringdahl — which has stations in Fergus Falls, Minn., Pelican Rapids, Minn., Lisbon, N.D., and Jamestown, N.D. — was scrambled into action for assignment 1,353 miles south to San Antonio, Texas.

“We got a call and had to respond within six hours,” he said. “It took 31 hours to drive down, we drove straight through and only stopped for fuel.”

His team consisted of five ambulances with two-person teams each and a support trailer with various disaster relief supplies, including extra pairs of boots and specialized gear in the event of intense flooding.

The team left Thursday, Aug. 28, and arrived two days later to the emergency response headquarters in San Antonio to get their first assignment, right along side a fleet of 200 ambulances from around the country.

“We met up with a team from Ohio as we headed down,” Patterson said.

It didn’t take long for them to get their first assignment. The Ringdahl unit was charged as the primary ambulance service in the evacuation of Memorial Hermann Baptist-Orange Hospital in Orange, Texas and area nursing homes.

Some of the patients were in critical condition, and only the most meticulous of care could be used to move them safely to the disaster relief shelter, which was relocated 183 miles north to Marshall, Texas just a few days before Gustav made landfall.

“Our guys worked really hard down there,” Patterson said.

The team also responded to 911 calls in the region, because of the overload to local services. Patterson vividly recalls bringing one woman to the hospital for treatment, before taking her to the shelter.

She needed a BiPAP machine (a respiratory device), he said, and it couldn’t be disconnected or she would lose critical levels of oxygen. It was a challenge to move her without interrupting the flow of oxygen, but he did it.

The order was then made to move her to the Marshall shelter, but Patterson took it upon himself to make sure her husband joined them in the ambulance before heading up north.

“I found him into another shelter and made sure he was coming along,” Patterson said.

In all, Patterson says that his team affected the lives of over 50 people.

It’s about purpose

As a paramedic, Patterson has always strived to do the best in can to help people and take care of them. Even if it means going to great lengths and distances to do it.

“When this came along it was just something in my heart that I wanted to do,” Patterson said. “I just wanted to be there for the people.”

Patterson and his dedicated team were unabated in their efforts to help during the six days they were here. They slept little, always on call, always ready to spring into action. When they could they caught a few hours of rest in the back of their ambulances, but it never lasted long.

“You get an hour of sleep here and there,” he said, “but then you’re working constantly and you don’t even think about being tired.”

Sometimes, Patterson said, it was a bit overwhelming walking through the shelters. Stressed and discombobulated evacuees would call out to him from all sides as he readied his ambulance for departure, something that surely could be overwhelming at times.

“You couldn’t walk more than 10 feet without someone calling for help, needing something,” said Patterson.

He did what he could, he said, perfecting his mastering of multi-tasking all the while.

“I was getting patients ready while look for another’s bag,” he said. “It was definitely multi-tasking.”

When asked if he’d do it all again, his response was unwavering, “Absolutely.”

After paramedics returned from helping during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he knew that was something he wanted the opportunity to do, a way to help, to give back. He registered with FEMA and received his certification not too long after that moment.

This time around, he said, the operation and organization of the evacuation was orchestrated precisely.

While nobody on his team was involved with the 2005 strike team, he did speak with one paramedic who was in the New Orleans area when the storm Katrina hit.

“He said, ‘one you get everything done and everybody evacuated and get set into the shelter, there are no lights and there’s this strong roaring for about eight hours,’” Patterson said. The Katrina strike team was down there for a total of 30 days, he added.

Now that Patterson is back home in Minnesota, the threat of Ike is bearing down on the Texas coast and he is ready to spring back into action.

The “near engaged” 39-year-old surely loves his craft and his father, Patrick Sr. believes it was meant to be.

“He used be into computers,” Patrick Sr. said, “but I think that he found his calling.”

Patrick Jr. agrees.

To reach reporter Colin DeVries please call, 518-943-2100 ext. 3325, or e-mail, cdevries@thedailymail.net.

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