August 27, 1992

MAKESHIFT HOSPITALS TENDING TO WOUNDED

PAMELA FERDINAND Herald Staff Writer

Two field hospitals sprang up overnight amid the devastation of South Dade, treating hundreds of hurricane victims and attracting medical assistance from across the country.

Off Krome Avenue in Homestead, local paramedics and medical teams from Indiana and South Carolina transformed a low-slung turquoise senior citizens center into a M.A.S.H.-like outpost Tuesday evening. At the South Dade Government Center in Cutler Ridge, volunteers turned office space into an emergency room to help relieve Dade's overburdened hospitals.

By Wednesday morning in Homestead, dozens of people waited on beige folding chairs. The hum of a nearby power generator drowned their voices, and the constant flow of helicopters airlifting the most seriously injured patients to hospitals kicked up dust and dirt around them.

Inside, patients lay on rumpled white sheets covering dark green military cots. An elderly woman closed her eyes as a clear intravenous tube dripped liquid into her veins. A 2-week-old boy screamed as hovering doctors in camouflage sought to cure his dehydration.

And at 10:54 a.m., a 20-year-old woman gave birth.

Evelyn Greer said she hadn't expected to go into labor that day. She wasn't about to name her 7-pound baby boy after the hurricane.

"Andrew?" said Greer, who lost her Leisure City home to the storm. "No way, not after all this." She named her son Calvin.

Another homeless patient, 77-year-old Rafael Dillanueva, lost his trachea tube during the hurricane. Gasping for air, he had not left the hospital since it opened Tuesday. Doctors said he was healthy and gave him a place to sleep, but no one was available to drive him to a shelter.

Most people, however, came to the hospital seeking prescription refills or treatment for minor injuries after stepping on nails or getting cut by glass at their battered homes.

Esther Agnew, 43, caught insulation debris in her left eye. Doctors taped gauze over her eyes and gave her a general checkup.

She says they also gave her some solace. Seeing and talking to other people in similar straits was comforting, she said, even if it was in the hospital.

"We've been feeling like we're out here alone, just surviving," Agnew said. "So this is great."

In Cutler Ridge, doctors emerged tired and sweaty from the humid makeshift emergency room.

Dr. Richard Swihart flew in from Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind. After four hours of sleep, his only break Wednesday was for lunch -- spaghetti and meatballs out of a plastic packet.

Wednesday morning, four doctors from Palm Beach County hospitals arrived at the scene -- a multilayered municipal structure littered with broken glass, gravel and cans. Massive uprooted palm trees stretched across the concrete steps and dead birds rotted on the sidewalks.

The doctors, who brought antibiotics and surgical gloves, said they were shocked.

"You can smell it in the air," said Richard Levin, a podiatrist at Palms West Hospital. "It doesn't smell like South Florida."

The Homestead field hospital is at Krome Avenue and 16th Street. The hospital at the South Dade Government Center is at Southwest 211th Street and 108th Avenue. The hospitals have lists of open pharmacies where people can get their prescriptions filled.