She was mobilized for Maria and called to Katrina.
But Mardi Gras? And Pope Francis?
They’re all chapters in the emergency medical career of Raelene Jarvis.
As part of a National Disaster Medical System team, she was in Puerto Rico to provide assistance following Hurricane Maria.
The Vancouver nurse shared her experiences in a story that ran Sunday in The Columbian. Her 16 years with Oregon’s Disaster Medical Assistance Team includes deployments to historic events such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
She’s also been mobilized for Mardi Gras and for a visit by Pope Francis.
They’re not events that most people would define as medical emergencies.
“They’re national security events,” Jarvis explained.
So are presidential inaugurations and national political conventions.
“They want a medical team to be on-site in case there is a medical need. I was at the papal visit,” when Pope Francis was here in 2015, she said.
“It was interesting. We spent the whole time on standby, hoping we weren’t going to be needed. Since the whole team was there, we spent our time doing training.”
Her Mardi Gras assignment in 2006 was a return trip to New Orleans.
Altercations & alcohol
“Mardi Gras was kind of a continuation of Katrina. They recognized that the hospitals were not up and running, six months after the hurricane. Nobody was sure how many people would come to Mardi Gras.”
So the disaster team set up a mini-emergency department that could take pressure off hospital emergency rooms.
Jarvis worked a night shift in a tent that was set up in a big parking lot. Her patients included cardiac cases and people injured in minor vehicle accidents.
There also were a couple of stabbing victims and gunshot injuries. It wasn’t a crime wave as much as a confluence of arguments, altercations and alcohol, she said.
And a couple of people fell off parade floats.
“That’s what happens at Mardi Gras,” she said.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
