Hospital representatives gathered at the Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home, located at 89-40 135th St., on Monday, Oct 28, to celebrate the homecoming of Hurricane Helene relief workers.
The MediSys Disaster Medical Response Relief Team (DMRT) is comprised of doctors and nurses from the MediSys Health Network- Jamaica Hospital Medical Center (JHMC) and Flushing Hospital Medical Center (FHMC). The response team included Lisa Fraumeni-Pickel, Igor Bazilevich, Shiv Kumarie-Santram, Kody Fuller, Jatinder Chopra, Jannina Rivera and Karen Benabou.
At the request of the International Medical Corps (IMC), the team of seven doctors, physician assistants and nurses deployed to Asheville, North Carolina, on Oct. 11 to provide healthcare and support to Hurricane Helene survivors. The group provided medical services in shelters and mobile medical units for two weeks before returning to New York on Oct. 25.
Mark Marino, assistant vice president of emergency management and prehospital care for MediSys, coordinated the relief effort with the IMC. Marino praised the medical workers’ quick deployment to North Carolina. “That’s not something to shrug your shoulders at. It struck me that we got the mission order on Wednesday the 9th of October at 10:08 a.m., and 10:08 a.m. on Friday two days later, we were all at LaGuardia [airport] waving goodbye to them,” he said.
Marino added that the seven team members made personal sacrifices and many worked until the day before their deployment. “It’s extraordinary the amount of hours they worked in the various venues, shelters and mobile units, the amount of patients they interacted with is probably a record for any deployment we’ve ever had, Marino said. This team really impacted a lot of lives in Asheville,” he said.
Bruce Flanz, CEO of JHMC, said the hospital has developed a strong working relationship with IMC since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “They sent teams to help us, and they were tremendously helpful to our patients and our community. We developed a partnership with them, so now whenever there is a disaster somewhere in the country, we are able to help them,” he said.
Members of the DMRT spoke to QNS about the time they spent rendering medical assistance to displaced families in Asheville.
Jatinder Chopra, a physician assistant at JHMC, said she worked to administer medication to patients who lost their prescriptions during the flood, treat respiratory issues, and provide wound care to the injured. Chopra said it was an emotional experience when it was time to depart for New York.
“I was very emotional because I’ve been with those patients for two weeks. It wasn’t all medical care we provided; they passed by and shared their stories of what they lost, how they were affected, and just by listening to them, I think a lot of their anxiety was alleviated,” Chopra said. “Those patients thanked me for being there and said I made a difference in their lives. It brought tears to my eyes.”
Lisa Fraumeni-Pickel, Assistant Director of Nursing at JHMC and team lead of the DMRT, also recalled her experience assisting Asheville residents.
“We all worked at three different shelters, and we set the standard for providing good, thorough care and documenting it, too.” According to Fraumeni-Pickel, the MediSys team was the first structured team and team from IMC to appear at the shelters.
Before the team arrived, Fraumeni-Pickel explained that many volunteers would show up to help where they were needed. Much of Fraumeni-Pickel’s care centered on seniors with respiratory issues. “I was in a medical needs shelter, so a lot of them needed oxygen and help administering medication. A lot of patients were on oxygen and O2 concentrators, which needed electricity, and their houses didn’t have electricity, so they were with us,” she said.
Fraumeni-Pickel and Chopra said they worked 12-hour shifts 7 days a week, with only one day off while administering aid in Asheville. They said they enjoyed returning to their accommodations at Boyd Christmas Tree Farm to debrief as a team.
At the ceremony, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards provided citations to the DMRT in recognition of their work in Asheville. “I want to thank all of you who traveled down to North Carolina. You are all heroes in our eyes, and I say thank you on behalf of the borough because we never know when it will be our time in need,” Richards said. “I want to thank all of you… for sacrificing your time away from your families to make sure that somebody you don’t know will have a better path forward as they come through the recovery phase of this storm,” he said.
The MediSys Health Network has a decades-long history of deploying its DMRT. Starting in 1992 with Hurricane Andrew in Homestead, Florida, the team has deployed across the country and responded locally to catastrophic events.
MediSys’ DMRT was notably the first ambulance system on the scene at the World Trade Center in 2001. More recently, it assisted in Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, the earthquake in Puerto Rico in 2020, and Hurricane Ian in Florida in 2022.
