{"id":18624,"date":"2017-09-08T16:39:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T20:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=18624"},"modified":"2017-09-12T09:34:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T13:34:43","slug":"helping-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2017\/09\/helping-in-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping in Houston during Hurricane Harvey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe style=\"max-width: 100%;\"style=\"max-width: 100%;\"src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c0Hvw1OzEHU?rel=0&#038;modestbranding=1&#038;autohide=1&#038;showinfo=0&#038;controls=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Meghan Duggan\u2019s voice wavers and she turns her head away, composing herself.<\/p>\n<p>Normally talkative and engaging, Duggan, a UTC graduate \u201916 with a master\u2019s of science in nursing,\u00a0tries to describe her feelings as she watches Hurricane Irma bear down on South Florida. A certified registered nurse anesthetist at Texas Children&#8217;s Hospital in Houston, she\u2019s suffering a painful case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu only days after Hurricane Harvey blasted through her city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s hard to watch people suffer,\u201d she says after a moment, her voice still a bit wobbly. \u201cIt&#8217;s hard to feel like you want to help and you can&#8217;t. Being part of the medical profession, I think you have a helpful heart, but I think you take on a lot of those feelings, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her friend Katie Springer, who also earned an MSN from UTC in 2016 and is also a certified registered nurse anesthetist at Texas Children&#8217;s, has a physical reaction when she watches news about Irma\u2014something she can\u2019t force herself to do very often.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiterally, arm hair is standing up right now thinking about it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Their reactions are well-deserved. The pair held down the fort at Texas Children\u2019s while Harvey dumped more than 40 inches of rain, displaced more than 30,000 and killed 14 in Houston. Part of the hospital\u2019s Pediatric Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine team, they were already at work when floodwaters began to rise but, with the hospital virtually an island surrounded by water, other doctors, nurses, and staff were stranded elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe told them, \u2018You all stay home with your families and your kids,\u2019&#8221; Duggan says.<\/p>\n<p>Springer arrived at the hospital about 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, the day Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast; Duggan got there about 6 a.m. Saturday. Both stayed through the weekend working 12 hours on 12 hours off. Duggan left about noon Monday, Springer about 9 a.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Over those few days, time tended to swirl around itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kept asking each other, \u2018What is today?\u2019&#8221; Duggan says.<\/p>\n<p>With water all around them, no badly injured people could even get to their emergency room, they say, so they spent the days making sure patients in the hospital were safe, both medically, mentally and personally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were not in hot, major action,\u201d Duggan says.<\/p>\n<p>And, in some ways, that was worse. Being out of the major devastation, unable to use the skills they learned at UTC, made them feel somewhat helpless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust that survivor&#8217;s guilt,\u201d Duggan says. \u201cIt&#8217;s that feeling that, while we made it out with no scrapes or cuts, but look at everybody else. Some people are really devastated. Sitting on the roof of their house, waiting for rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With text messages pinging and Amber alerts screeching through their cellphones, not to mention constant watch on emails and social media updates from co-workers, friends and family, it \u201cwas really challenging to not be out there,\u201d Springer adds.<\/p>\n<p>Patients in Texas Children\u2019s were effusive in their praise for the care they were receiving, but Springer and Duggan were embarrassed by the praise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll these people were like, \u2018Thank you so much for staying and helping,\u2019\u201d Springer says. \u201cBut we wanted to be like, \u2018Please stop thanking me. I feel like I&#8217;m doing a very small part when your home is being &#8230; You don&#8217;t have a home anymore.\u2019&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Waters have mostly receded at this point and the hospital is running as normal, but things are definitely not normal in Houston. Reeling and shellshocked, residents are reaching out more than ever, trying to connect with others, desperate to find something to offset the sense of confusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went back to work a couple of days ago but, as things are going back to normal\u2014or trying to\u2014everyone is asking, \u2018How are you?\u2019\u201d Duggan says. \u201cIt&#8217;s not that normal, \u2018How are you?\u2019 Like, \u2018How&#8217;s your day?\u2019 It&#8217;s like, \u2018No, really, how are you? How&#8217;s your family?\u2019 You pause and you wait and you&#8217;re like, \u2018I hope they say they&#8217;re OK,\u2019 because you don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like the city and its residents, Duggan and Springer are recovering in their own way. They must turn to lessons learned at UTC, their careers in medicine and from treating children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you\u2019re so close to such devastation, not even recently with the hurricane but every day\u2014especially with us working with kids,\u201d Springer says, \u201cyou\u2019ll see things that break your heart all the time \u2026 Sometimes you just have to find that way to be compassionate and have empathy but still be able to take care of yourself and separate a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meghan Duggan\u2019s voice wavers and she turns her head away, composing herself. Normally talkative and engaging, Duggan, a UTC graduate \u201916 with a master\u2019s of science in nursing,\u00a0tries to describe her feelings as she watches Hurricane Irma bear down on South Florida. A certified registered nurse anesthetist at Texas Children&#8217;s Hospital in Houston, she\u2019s suffering&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2017\/09\/helping-in-houston\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":757,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4936,56,12806,64],"tags":[70186,70187,70185,70184],"class_list":{"0":"post-18624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-college-of-health-education-and-professional-studies","7":"category-health-and-human-performance","8":"category-news","9":"category-school-of-nursing","10":"tag-harvey","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-katie-springer","13":"tag-meghan-duggan","14":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Helping in Houston during Hurricane Harvey | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=c0Hvw1OzEHU&amp;feature=youtu.be Meghan Duggan\u2019s voice wavers and she turns her head away, composing herself. 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