Ill Hurricane Victims Face Critical Period
After Days Without Treatment, Many Patients Are at Risk
As the conditions on the Gulf Coast worsen, the medical needs of Hurricane Katrina victims enter a critical point. The very young, the very old and people with chronic medical problems face a period where access to medical care is needed for their very survival.
"The clock is ticking," said Dr. James Nataro, professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland.
Children and the elderly are of particular concern, medical experts told ABC News. Although healthy adults can go many days without food and several days without water, it takes only 24 hours for infants without any food or water to become dangerously dehydrated. Elderly patients, many of whom are on medications that decrease their ability to retain water, also are extremely vulnerable.
For those who haven't been rescued or don't have access to clean water, dehydration will become a problem, he said, adding that drinking the available contaminated water will likely result in diarrheal illness. "The types of bacteria and viruses that cause these infections in the U.S. aren't usually fatal," Nataro said.
But he added that a vicious cycle could emerge: As the children get more dehydrated, they'll need more water, and drinking more contaminated water can lead to more infection.
Ill Also in Jeopardy
In addition to the youngest and oldest victims, patients with existing illnesses who cannot access their medications and treatments also are approaching a period of dire need.
Without a potassium-lowering medication called Kayexalate, dialysis patients will develop dangerously high levels of potassium. And even if the patients can get to a location where dialysis can be performed, the machines require clean water to carry out the blood filtration process.
"New Orleans has the highest density of dialysis patients in the country," said Dr. Leslie Spry of the National Kidney Foundation. "In three to four days, you'll start to see dialysis patients dying if they don't have Kayexalate or aren't dialyzed."
Along with a higher-than-average kidney failure population, Louisiana and Mississippi have more diabetics than other states. In Type I diabetes, where the body makes almost no insulin, a condition called Diabetic Ketoacidosis develops when a person doesn't inject insulin. Without insulin, the body produces byproducts of fat breakdown, becomes dehydrated and blood electrolytes are disturbed.
