Orthopaedists Respond

The Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually intense this year, spawning five major hurricanes. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, in particular, were especially destructive due to their intensity, duration, and sheer physical size. Although so many different geographic regions were severely impacted by devastating winds and flooding, the hurricanes did not cause high numbers of musculoskeletal injuries.

Tales from the Hurricane Front

Terry Stanton

It's not that the healthcare system in Houston wasn't prepared for Hurricane Harvey. Having seen the devastation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and, before that, tropical storm Allison, which inundated Houston in 2001, the city's hospitals and medical network were ready as Harvey bore down on the Texas coast. As ready as anyone can be for a once-in-five-lifetimes storm.

On the Water Front

On Sunday, as waters were rising on streets near his Memorial neighborhood in Houston, Stefan Kreuzer, MD, MSc, and friend Brian Dominguez, ventured out in a large truck to salvage food from Brian's house, which had lost electricity. On the way, Dr. Kreuzer sent a text to one of his patients—a woman for whom he had done a hip replacement about a month prior to Hurricane Harvey. She replied with a photo showing water halfway up her front door.

On Call

Taggart Gauvain, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon, proved his versatility when he joined Houston's improvised version of the "Cajun Navy" —the volunteer rescue force of Louisiana-based boaters that assembled after Hurricane Katrina and then towed their armada to Houston—to help in the Harvey flooding. Dr. Gauvain related how much of the informal rescue efforts in Houston coalesced organically through text messages and social media.

Inside the Shelter

Camden Tissue, MD, is a recently minted orthopaedic trauma surgeon practicing at Memorial Hermann Southwest in Houston. As a lifelong Houstonian, he returned to the area after completing his training in New York. "My wife and I looked at each other as Hurricane Harvey was bearing down the coast and said, 'Why did we leave New York again?'" he said. Dr. Tissue noted that as a wind event, Harvey was underwhelming.

Hurricane Irma's Category 5 Power Crushes U.S. Virgin Islands

Jeffrey M. Chase, MD

Editor's Note: This editorial is an account written by AAOS Fellow Jeffrey M. Chase, MD, who rode out Hurricane Irma in his house on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Thomas. Irma, a category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds of 180 MPH and gusts up to 220 MPH, roared across the United States and British Virgin Islands (BVI) on Sept. 6, 2017. It was the strongest Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history.