To succor the sick: crossroads of US healthcare’s future and Charity Hospital’s past

The ongoing reconstruction of the American medical system draws in the human drama central to the reconstruction of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital, mortally wounded by Hurricane Katrina and yet poignantly illustrating the new era decentralizing medical care. Second in the United States only to New York City’s Bellevue Hospital in age, the history of Charity Hospital winds through epidemics, wars, physician duels, and hurricanes to the current day. The ongoing political duel between proponents of the Affordable Care Act and the resistant Louisiana state government pits Charity Hospital as the symbolic centerpiece of the question—what does it mean to care for the sick? Various actors in the stage of this acclaimed level one trauma center offer differing responses. The nineteenth century Charity physicians, Drs. Choppin and Foster, offered their position on absolute dedication to one’s patients, even at the expense of dueling colleagues for refusing to relinquish ownership of the patient. The Hurricane Katrina-era physicians, Drs. Deblieux and DeBoisBlanc, propose a different response during their five-day battle with no power and waning supplies to keep their stranded patients alive, waiting for rescue. Analyzing the insights at this intersection of human and societal forces, present and past may produce guidance for how to proceed forward rather than regressing, or rather, for how to move deeper into the intersection of the patient and physician.