It was surreal sitting outside the locked chainlink fence interviewing Karen, the boarded up hospital looming above us in a way both beautiful and spooky – it too a victim of Hurricane Katrina.

Charity Hospital’s story is not necessarily of what happened to it during the storm – although it bears the scars – but what happens to the community afterwards while its doors stay shut. This institution, once the safety net for many of New Orleans’ uninsured, remains closed, its future uncertain as the state struggles to resolve issues around its funding, maintenance and rebuilding.

We drew a few spectators – a couple of local kids came right up, called over by Karen who asked them if they lived nearby and had they ever been treated at Charity Hospital? They hadn’t (they went to the children’s hospital, they said), but their parents used to come here. A local cop pulled in to see what we were up to, unused to seeing people out front.

A far cry from the days when thousands streamed up this sidewalk through the doors to seek treatment at Charity Hospital. For now those patients are spread around to other facilities – local clinics, charity hospitals in other cities – but limited services or even just transportation issues might mean going without care as long as the fences and locks keep community members from Charity Hospital.

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comments (1)

Comments

1 Posted by Daniela at 07/24/08 04:53 PM

This is depressing. Closure in more ways than one.

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