all week long here at Houston life we've
been sharing stories of Hurricane
Harvey's impact on the community while
most people were trying to get away from
the storm first responders and medical
professionals stayed back to help in any
way they could that was especially true
for HCA Health Care's Gulf Coast
division and their vast network of
hospitals doctors and nurses joining us
now
pediatric surgeon dr. Steven Kimmel and
chief nurse Kelly nations welcome to
Houston life
thanks for being here you guys have such
an incredible story and I know that the
the staff and everybody with with you
has as well but dr. Kimmel let me start
with you your home and Dickinson at the
time when Harvey hit when you got a call
about a teen who is in desperate need of
surgery you drove as far as you could
which wasn't too far no about a mile or
so and then what happened well the I I
knew I was gonna get stuck so I turned
around and I called the hospital I said
I can do the surgery but you need to
help me get there
so with the help of a bunch of phone
calls Dickinson Fire Department sent a
couple of young guys and they came to
the door and they said okay we're gonna
run for a while I was hoping for a big
fire truck right so we ran we ran for
about a mile
and we'll Zeke had stored his canoe we
took the canoe down 517 to his truck
drove up 45 and then canoed a little
more and ran the rest of the way I mean
it but you made it in time didn't you we
did we actually arrived within about
five minutes of the of the patient who
had come had to come all the way from
Pearland he also had a harrowing journey
and that's a picture right there there
he came on with your patient and while
there was good news at the hospital that
you made it there the bad news from home
your wife called and said hey we've been
flooded we're all up on the second floor
because the water is all in wasn't that
kind of a heart-wrenching experience for
now it was a little a little difficult
because we didn't really know what to
expect I mean I
the day before my son and I were out in
the backyard looking at the rain and
thinking well it's gonna be a lot of
rain but it should be fine we'd been
through hurricanes before but by the
time we left the water was almost up to
the
uh well that's the next morning we had
about three feet of water in the house
and I was a little concerned about my
family for sure yeah to say to say the
least I can imagine and your family had
to be evacuated so that's cause for
concern as well Kelly let's chat a
little bit about your story because you
during Harvey you were sort of tasked
with what sounds kind of impossible to
me I mean you you were essentially asked
to bring in nurses from all around the
country to help how are you able to do
that when you had so many logistical
challenges we are so fortunate to be
part of the large organization HCA
healthcare and so as a result during the
storm is we were caring for our patients
we were communicating with the command
center in Nashville so as we were
working with them that Saturday during
the storm dr. Jane Englebright who is
our chief nurse for the entire company
said Kelly how many nurses are you going
to need this week and I'm thinking well
I've got plenty of nurses right now I'm
doing just fine and she said no I mean
at the end of the week so that you can
allow your nurses to go home and take
care of their families because about
that time we knew that the whole city
was going to be flooded so they just
started arriving they started arriving
on Thursday and then they continued to
arrive Thursday Friday Saturday and
Sunday and we had over 300 nurses Wow
look at that just such an impressive
group and the greatest thing about this
is that they were specialty nurses so
they were neonatal ICU nurses trauma
nurses cardiovascular ICU nurses so we
knew that we had really expert nurses to
come in and relieve our nurses to allow
them to go home and take care of their
families who by the way these people all
came in four weeks yes we had some
nurses that stayed with us for four to
six weeks because as y'all know just
like dr. Kimmel many of our nurses had
their homes flooded and they were
without vehicles and so we allowed them
that extra time to get their homes back
together so it's such a whirlwind I mean
it's a world one what this city went
through and and the devastation of not
only the personal side right but your
doctors and nurses and having to go to
work to respond because at that point
you can't close it I mean you're you
still have to care for these people
what's so incredible is you were able to
be reunited with those first responders
dr. Kimmel yes I
actually was in my my yard about a week
or two later and we'll Zeke from
Dickinson Fire Department came and he
was bringing some food when I met him
and I hadn't seen Kevin till just this
past week so we were reunited at the
hospital just this week it was great to
see him too clearly a lot of personal
sacrifices were made by professionals
medical professionals and first
responders right here in Houston and
also from around the country in parts of
the state when it comes to an emergency
situation like this though given your
professional field do you see it as a
personal sacrifice or in the moment it's
just it's what has to be done right I
mean is there any question about whether
or not you would get to work to do your
job I don't think so I mean it's just
what we do every day and it's just
another day of work and you know we we
rely on each other that's really the key
we know that we rely on each other so we
need to have we need to be the ones that
we can also be relied on well you guys
are total heroes and the pictures of
people there are also heroes as well
absolutely I mean these pictures just
really do tell the story I'm guessing
that was a prayer yeah that happened in
the hospital I believe that's it Clear
Lake Regional Medical Center yeah Kelly
let's talk about the HCA Hope Fund oh
yes oh it's just the most wonderful
opportunity for our employees when they
have had a hardship whether it's a
medical emergency that they've
experienced or a natural disaster like
this so we have been able through the
HCA Hope Fund we awarded over two
million dollars to over 1,500 employees
and it was everything from cleaning
supplies to vouchers for homes and
automobiles and it really is just a and
it still continues every day it's just
that it's a perfect support for our
employees during a natural disaster like
that it's so great when employees are
taking care of his wife you guys are so
good at taking care of people I want to
point out that within the last year
you've served more than 1 million
patients and this is just a Shaye's
Health Care's Gulf Coast division 1
million patients
450,000 gr visits those numbers are
staggering those are a lot of patients
yeah well it's good peace of mind for
our community to know that people like
you dr. Kimmel and Kelly are in our
community and ready to help when needed
thank you so much for all your work and
thanks for stopping by today thank y'all
for having us and if you would like to
learn more about HCA health care's work
in the community you can log on to HCA
Houston health care comm slash Harvey