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Nurse’s family finds hope after Katrina by Cindy Abole Public Relations Last year, clinical nurse leader Monica Mumme was praised by her peers for her exceptional patient care, critical thinking skills and excellence in nursing service as MUSC Nurse of the Year. Two weeks ago, Mumme’s nursing skills were tested in a story of rescue and a daughter’s devotion in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.   As the first images of Hurricane Katrina showed the damage caused by fierce winds and rain along the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, few people realized the storm’s true intensity and destruction that changed the lives of thousands of displaced victims.   On Aug. 30, Mumme received a disturbing call left on her home answering machine. It conveyed a simple message relayed by a stranger’s voice: “Your mother and family are alive. They evacuated their home during the storm and are stranded in a hotel in downtown Waveland, Miss. They need your help.”      Mumme contacted the American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and police to inquire about rescue efforts and access into the storm-ravaged area. The next day, Mumme drove her cargo-laden, diesel-fueled Volkswagon Jetta westbound on I-10. She followed a  clearing crew into the heart of the Mississippi Gulf Coast mainland and past the broken and battered communities that she loved growing up.   6 West nurse Monica Mumme's mother, JoAnn and husband, Rick George, survey the damage to their coastal Mississippi home caused by Hurricane Katrina Aug. 29. When she arrived in Waveland, a small community of about 7,000 people just 45 miles east of New Orleans, she listened to the frightening stories of family survival. Surviving were her mother, JoAnn, 70 and stepfather, Rick George, 77, and her ailing grandparents who evacuated days earlier from their New Orleans home. The clan chose to vacate the family home for safer ground in one of Waveland’s oldest structures—a hotel that proved itself by withstanding the winds of Hurricane Camille in 1969 and other storms. At one point during the storm, the town was engulfed by an unexpected storm surge that drew water levels  up to 18 feet. Mumme’s family barely had time to scramble up an outside stairwell to the hotel’s second story where they rode out the rest of the storm through 100-plus mph wind gusts.   “The town was just devastated beyond recognition,” said Mumme, showing photos from her recent visit. “My mother’s house was one of three in her block that was left standing but ruined by the storm surge. There was no electricity, clean water or transportation available. Everyone was doing their best to help each other in order to survive.”   JoAnn George, back right, joins daughter, Monica, and grandchildren, Leah and Aaron during a recent visit. Thankful for her family’s own survival, Mumme became increasingly concerned about their health and safety. Her grandparents, already in their 90s, suffer from multiple medical issues. Her infirmed grandfather was a hospice patient diagnosed with hypertension, senility and heart failure. After reporting to authorities and offering her services to those with medical needs, she unloaded the provisions she carried with her including fresh water, cases of nutritional drinks, medical supplies including bags of gauze, peroxide, alcohol, dressings, glucose, bleach and other emergency supplies. Next, she loaded her family into the car and made the journey to the home of her in-laws in Montgomery, Ala. After checking them medically at a hospital, she returned back to Waveland to rescue more of her extended family.   Mumme struggled when it came time for her to leave Waveland a second time.   “It was very hard to depart that second day knowing that I couldn’t take any more people in my small car,” said Mumme, noting the growing stress and anxiousness on the faces of residents who were awaiting aid and evacuation. “That moment, I honestly wished my Jetta were a bus so I could evacuate more people. The people I left behind were trying hard to be brave and self- sufficient. My heart went out to all of them.”   Remembering the act of a stranger’s phone call who connected her back to her mother and family, Mumme collected the names and outside contacts of dozens of Waveland residents and promised to make similar phone calls communicating news of hope, survival or despair.   By the sixth day, Labor Day, she returned with her family to Charleston. Exhausted, but still focused on their care, she sought guidance from colleagues to help situate them, medically. She conferred with internal medicine hospitalist Justin Miller, M.D. to help arrange medical appointments and continuum care manager Florence Simmons, R.N. for guidance regarding resources for medications and physician referrals. Overnight her own family of four doubled with the arrival of her displaced relatives.      Efforts to register with FEMA and the Red Cross for aid was a struggle and disappointment for Mumme. It took almost two days by phone to register both couples through FEMA. Documenting info with the Red Cross was especially difficult.   The day after their arrival, her grandfather was admitted by emergency to a local hospital after a diabetic seizure. For five days he was critically ill and unable to physically register for disaster aid. For now, the Red Cross was able to disperse a $650 value debit card between the four—hardly enough to cover their combined medications alone. Currently, she’s found a furnished apartment nearby that will temporarily house them.      But the overall stress with managing the rescue, resettling her family and returning to work has physically and mentally worn Mumme. She needs help both financially and physically to care and help her displaced family with small necessities from transporting them to medical appointments or trips to the grocery store to basic home visits.   “Despite warnings from friends and family, I’m really glad I picked up and went on my own,” Mumme said, who still has a sister and other family recovering in the region. “I don’t think my grandparents would have survived without my interaction."             For information on how to help, contact Mumme at mummem@musc.edu.   Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.