FAR ROCKAWAY, N.Y.  In the parking lot of a popular donut shop chain and ice cream parlor, across the street from an elementary school, and flanked by apartment buildings sits a compound filled with ambulances and emergency responders dedicated to the care of those displaced after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on their community.

The area, known officially as the New York City Department of Health Far Rockaway Welfare Check Operation, has become the place where National Guard and emergency medical technicians are bringing those found in nearby high-rise residences to get immediate medical attention before discharging them or forwarding them to nearby hospitals.

The medical tent – operated this day by a disaster medical assistance team (DMAT) headquartered in Atlanta – has been in operation since Nov. 10 and has already helped hundreds of patients who need their care.

The DMAT medical tent is part of a large operation involving all levels of government to identify those in need of medical attention.

“We are working with community groups, the New York state and city health departments, 100 ambulances, 200 EMTs, 200 members of the National Guard and NYPD,” said Dr. John Lyng, the chief medical officer of the HHS medical tent who is normally an emergency room physician and the medical director of ambulatory and air care at North Memorial hospital in Brooklyn Center, Minn . “This is truly a team effort.”

Lyng, who is in charge of a staff of 11 that comprise the strike team working at the medical tent, is providing care – and in some cases – getting emergency medications to those who have run out because they are unable to see their primary physician or get to a pharmacy. In one instance, Dr. Lyng arranged for the delivery of a 200-lb., tank of oxygen to a patient in their apartment.

On this day, a 2-year-old from Rockaway Beach, arrives at the shelter and quickly is cared for Boyce Brock, a registered nurse with South Fulton Medical Center who lives in Fayetteville, Ga.

“His physician’s office was destroyed and his parents had nowhere else to take him; so, they brought him here,” said Brock, who was formerly an army medic. “He will be fine.”

Brock – like many assigned to these teams of elite medical professionals – are often called away quickly to help following disasters where healthcare facilities have been degraded.

“I spent 6 days on alert and got the notification I was leaving late on Nov. 8,” said Brock. “The next day, I was in on a plane headed this way.”

When asked why he became involved with the DMAT, Brock simply stated, “I want to get out here and do something rather than watch what is happening on the news.”

 

Boyce Brock, a registered nurse from Fayetteville, Ga., attending to a 2-year-old boy brought to a medical shelter in Far Rockaway, N.Y., for care. The shelter – located in the parking lot of a popular donut shop chain – was part of the ongoing federal response to Super Storm Sandy, which ravaged the area Oct. 29, 2012.