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Tom Crann

Minnesota doctor revisits Louisiana a year after Katrina

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Debris
Debris still lines the streets and highways in many areas of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina.
Photo courtesy of Jon Hallberg

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, some Minnesota health care providers mobilized to head south and help out. Operation Minnesota Lifeline arrived prepared to provide health care for people displaced and injured in the storms.

What they discovered was a population badly in need of basic, primary care. Dr. Jon Hallberg is was one of the medical professionals who responded. He spent some time at a primary care clinic that sprung up in Lafayette, Lousiana.

A year later, Hallberg went back to the region to asses the impact this Minnesota team had on the region's health care. When he was there, he also caught up with some of people with whom he worked about what happened, and what lies ahead.

Hallberg shared some of his conversations with Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann.

Gallery
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Dr. Erin Brewer
Dr. Erin Brewer is medical director for the Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health in Louisiana. Dr. Brewer says it will be a long road to fix the two-tiered health care system in Louisiana.
Photo courtesy of Jon Hallberg
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Debris
Debris still lines the streets and highways in many areas of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina.
Photo courtesy of Jon Hallberg
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Public health staff
Dr. Tina Stefanski is medical director for the Office of Public Health in Acadiana, shown here with two of her nurses. Stefanski says if Minnesota Lifeline hadn't come, it would have been a nightmare.
Photo courtesy of Jon Hallberg