CHRISTY: Once the storm hit,
all communication ceased.
We were alone. Fearful.
My name is Christy Paulsell and we live in
Mandeville, Louisiana.
My daughter P.J., is 29-years-old now.
Ten years ago, at nineteen, she was in a
near fatal motorcycle accident and
has suffered a traumatic brain injury with
quadriparesis
paralysis on the right side dominantly.
I am her primary caregiver
and we have personal care assistants that
come in during the day for twelve hours
She communicates mostly with her body language.
We were qualified to make it into
the Brain Injury rehabilitation
unit at Touro (Infirmary) Hospital in New Orleans,
and that was about two weeks prior to
Katrina, Hurricane Katrina making landfall.
P.J. still had a trach (tracheostomy) in her throat.
P.J. was not at the point where I could
just scoop her up and put her in
my car and take her home,
and then evacuate from there.
I can remember vividly
pulling P.J.’s hospital bed into the doorway
and reading Psalms out of the bible
throughout the hurricane.
The nurse did say that a plan had been put in place
for evacuation and I asked to see it
and was never shown that plan.
Wednesday… no helicopters came to us,
we saw them circling the city.
Thursday, they started landing and pulling people out
Friday is when P.J. was finally in line to go.
As she was being moved up the transport line.
the nurses restrained me and
held me back.
The nurse did say that the
manila envelope that they had
put on her chest would take care of everything.
It just had her face sheet on it,
and did not describe her needs…
and I lost control.
Started crying and yelling,
and out of the hand…
of the helicopter
the hand of the pilot came
and motioned me to come aboard.
Caregivers must be able to be evacuated
with their patients... with their clients,
you know, children.
It's absolutely a must
P.J. would not have survived
Hurricane Katrina
if it wasn't for that hand that
came out and said "Come on."
I'm very very sure of that.