Galveston hospital struggles after Ike

GALVESTON, Texas, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas, may never fully recover from damage caused by Hurricane Ike, officials say.

The hospital, part of the University of Texas Medical Branch, was flooded by the Sept. 13 storm, affecting its blood bank, pharmacy, laboratory and kitchens and causing $710 million in damage. Its emergency trauma center is closed, forcing patients to be taken 50 miles to Houston, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"If we can't put on a Band-Aid or a splint, we have to transfer you or send you home," Brian Zachariah, director of emergency medicine at the UTMB in Galveston, told the newspaper. "We can't even give traditional emergency care."

University of Texas regents ordered a series of 2,500 layoffs throughout the UTMB system, with most of them coming from John Sealy's 4,500 doctors and staff, including 127 tenured professors at the medical school, officials told the newspaper.

Mold and spores found in several of John Sealy's operating rooms and many other problems caused by the Hurricane Ike flooding make it likely the facility will never be the same, hospital workers said to USA Today.