By Vivienne C. – Photographs by John Childermass
Hathian General Hospital (‘HGH’) opened its doors for the citizens at end of September in some kind of soft launch. It was a huge relief after the hurricane and the troubles of using the field hospital and the Hathian Theatre. For the opening day celebration on October 7th, I went to the hospital to speak to doctors and patients on the changes they have seen and how they feel about the big day.
There was a sense of community achievement and pride from all those who I spoke with that day. It was a heartening occasion and the new facility was definitely a marked improvement over the old HGH and the interim arrangements.
The field hospital was equipped with the minimum possible resources that barely enabled staff to perform their roles. The days the staff spent there were hard, but we did our best to do our jobs with such limited assets, especially the last days when hurricane season was about to start. It was our duty, and we humbly did it. We weren’t sure at the end we would have such beautiful building, but look at it! Frankly speaking the difference between the working environment here and the field camp or the theatre temporary location, is no match. Safety and security were questionable, even for the patients themselves but the new building is wide and vast, the management is friendly, and we are all one family here, caring for each other.
Dr. Kenzy Baxton – PhD. is a patient advocate / case manager and a psychologist.
Even the dead of Hathian are thought of during the opening day as Dr. Céleste de Sade passionately advocates for a functioning morgue. Not only that, she is working to finalize Mourning Wood Funeral Home for its own grand opening. In her own words “You Stab’um. We Slab’um”.
“Today is another day without the morgue being open. I am looking forward to the grand opening, but more so for the party afterwards so I can drown my sorrows in tequila for having to treat live patients instead of dead ones.“
Celeste de Sade – Forensic Pathologist
Our Live Coverage & Interviews at the Event
Dr. Simon LeMarchand, the administrator and Ms Yua Matsumoto, operations manager, opened the hospital officially with a ribbon cutting attended by an excited crowd.
“There are so many things that come to mind in this moment. The years of history that were lost on that fateful day when the old hospital was destroyed. The desperate and chaotic time that followed when Hathian’s finest fought to save lives that day. It was truly the darkest day in the history of Hathian General and its staff. Then there was a huge logistical exercise to relocate HGH to a temporary field hospital and support our operations while we continued to try and provide healthcare to the citizens of Hathian. I would like to take a moment at this point to thank some very special friends of HGH. Without whom our monumental task would not have been possible. Please join me in thanking the Lions Logistics and Warehousing who performed all these relocations, at no cost to the Hospital. They bore the costs and took care of everything for us and I for one could not have been more grateful.”
Dr. Simon LeMarchand, Administrator
Fundraising
The opening ceremony dedicated much to thank the Hospital’s friends Lions and Luxure Lounge, as well as for citizens, notably Why Verdandi from The Hathian Civil Service Office and Annika from the 24-Hour Pawn Shop collected a total of $468,897 in donations, disbursed $122,500 to victims of the tragedy that applied for relief funds, and was proud to be able to apply $346,397 to the rebuilding of the Hathian General Hospital!
Other donors and fundraisers were called out such as the Lyons and the 24-Hour Pawn Shop who ran a 50/50 raffle, and even HPD who gave $50,000 via Lt. Landon Fyre (He’d want his name here -Ed). Some large companies like Diamond Trinity Studios and O’Shea Pub and Imports were also involved and many Hathian citizens banded together to give small donations in a truly magnificent exercise of humanity.
“Our city hospital is one of the only places in this city where everyone finds open arms and helping hands. No matter who you are, what you have done, or what you may do… the hospital will be there to shelter you and heal you when you most need it. Everything else may divide us, but our base humanity will always be an undeniable commonality between even the most different of people, no? We all bleed. Those who destroyed the old hospital broke this social contract, but it was all of the many different people of the city who gave this money that restored it.”
Annika – Fundraiser from the 24-Hour Pawn Shop
All pictures can be found HERE.
