Medical and Other Supplies

By the end of the first night, blood supplies were low at Martin Luther King Hospital. The Red Cross had supplies available but could not deliver them. LAEMSA responded by using one of their inter-hospital transfer ambulances to transport twenty units of blood. Martin Luther King also discovered that vendors would not deliver oxygen to home bound patients. They quickly contracted with other vendors who provided the service. In some cases food delivery was a problem. State managed vending operations closed down at Mart Luther King with the permission of Sacramento based program administrators. This created a food shortage for the employees at the hospital. The operation opened again after the hospital complained However, King's contracted patient dietary operations continued uninterrupted with food service managers driving through the disaster zone to pickup and take home employees. Hospital security staff provided an escort service for medical supply trucks. Saint Francis Medical Center experienced problems with medical supplies and food delivery. There were sufficient intravenous solutions for only five days. Perishable foods such as fruits and vegetables were scarce. At one point hospital administrators went into the community and bought five hundred loaves of bread and other perishables and brought them to the hospital. A family with children bought all the milk in a vending machine at Saint Francis Hospital. It became apparent that the community saw the hospital as a source of food. In response, elderly citizens and some others in the community who needed food received low cost meals at the hospital. A free transportation service was developed for elderly patients to purchase prescriptions.

Medical Care for the Injured

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