Artist in FF T-shirt provides care

[cellblock]

Something to discuss.
He's not a FF or medic but he has a "uniform" which he says "...gets me through all the checkpoints, so I’m usually able to get people what they need,"
So much for proper access control. Anyone with a FD shirt can walk right in to a disaster area. It's a case of Imposters wearing the "Shirts Off Our Backs".
Comments?

From a PDF image of a issue of the N.O. newpaper- http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/090605/4.pdf under the story titled -
Urban survivalists create a community amid chaos
---------
The heroin junkie writhing in pain
from his hurricane-forced withdrawal
would have to wait. Ride Hamilton
had a more pressing emergency:
stitching up a guy’s ear with fishing
line and a sewing needle. Earlier, he
was forced to evacuate another
patient when her puncture wound
became infected with gangrene.
Hamilton, whose Cheyenne
Indian name is Two Fires, isn’t a
doctor, a medic or nurse. His credentials,
for the past week anyway,
consist of the Sioux Falls Fire
Department shirt he got from a
thrift store and the red cross he
drew with a magic marker and
taped to his car window.
"I thought I was just going to
run supplies, but with my uniform,
a lot of people have been asking for
medical help," he said. "I’m just
using common sense and what I’ve
seen in the movies."
Hamilton, a French Quarter artist,
is one of a small army of urban survivalists,
citizen aid workers and
self-made inventors spawned by
Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of
New Orleans. They can be seen all
over the dry parts of the city, creating
makeshift living compounds, trolling
for supplies and propping up the
dazed, wet and wounded.

[tyler101]

Just a wee bit beyond the "Good Samaritan" clause...

[cellblock]

But... But....the article says -

Others,
like Hamilton, have learned how
to do a little of everything. Even
practice medicine.

so as long as he's learned it must be OK. so he's like a doctor now. Right?
Besides-

"Plus, I’m the only sober
one here. That helps."

See? He's being responsible and not drinking so he can practice the medicine he learned watching Movies. That's character. You have to respect that. Right?

[cellblock]

Another article, this time from USA Today, mentioning the FD shirt wearing Bar Doctor, Ride Hamilton.
From
"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-04-frenchquarter-saturday_x.htm

"
we learn that he's being assisted by a bartender turned medic

who said he got some medical training while in the Air Force,

. Good to know that the people of the French Quarter are in such capable hands.
From-

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D14F73F550C778CDDA00894DD404482

-The New York times claims Hamilton is a firefighter-

Watching over them all is Ride Hamilton, a firefighter who splits his time between Sioux Falls, SD, and an apartment down the block from Johnny White's. ...

The report is repeated at-

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/04/news/french.php

and tells how Hamilton goes out looting, OOppps, I mean "Shopping" for supplies each day.
But other reports are clear that Hamilton is not a Firefighter.
From

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/05/cityinruins/index1.html

we find

A man in leather pants, a blue shirt, with long black hair and tattoos down his forearms, arrives at the bar with a cooler full of medical supplies. The bartender is now on the other end of the counter, doing speed. "I'm not really a bartender," he tells me. "I'm a drunk. I was just helping out." This is still the city I visited, I decide, concentrated into one bar.
The medic dresses Rogers' wounds. He has cuts on his legs and arms, apparently from diving into the water a few days ago to save his neighbor, who had been blown off the roof of her house by a helicopter. He had to walk all day and swim to get to Johnny White's last night. He says he was stopped and searched eight times. I spy the sign behind the bar, "Never Closed."
It seems to get hotter in New Orleans now that it's totally dark. Down the street, some lanterns burn. The humidity has increased. The medic's name is Ride Hamilton. "I'm not really a medic," he says, just like the bartender is not really a bartender. "But I'm the only medic here. I wear this uniform because it helps me get through stuff." I wonder to myself what kind of medic wears leather pants, especially in this heat.
I ask him where he learned how to do these things. He says he watches a lot of military documentaries. (The New York Times reported that Hamilton is a firefighter.) He says he stitched up a guy a few days ago, using a sewing needle and fishing line. FEMA left the stitches in. Said they were as good as any stitches they had ever seen.
"I got a warehouse full of supplies in my house," Hamilton says. "I went to all the places, all the pharmacies, before the wrong people got there. I took ointment and medicine while they were taking food. I'm doing this on a quarter tank of gas and a donut tire."

From

http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/txcn/stories/090505dntexkatquarter.8598a82.html

we get this report telling us he's a screenwriter, not an artist as mentioned earlier-

Ride Hamilton, 29, a struggling screenwriter wearing a Sioux Falls Fire Department shirt, leather pants and an eyebrow ring, became the French Quarter medic.
About 3 p.m. Sunday, he sat Vasilios Tryphonas on a keg outside Johnny White's and replaced the bandage on his ear. Mr. Hamilton had stitched it with fishing line after Mr. Tryphonas was hit with a two-by-four in a fight.

Amazing what you can accomplish with a thrift store FD tshirt and a bar full of drunks in a natural disaster.

[parafire81]

Considering no one else is helping....

[KnightnPBIArmor]

Considering no one else is helping....

I'm sure the FDNY brothers are most appreciative of your recognition of their efforts....

[MOTOWN88]

"YO!! DAWG you a Medic???"

"No But I did say at a Holiday Inn Express last night"

[FTMPTB15]

"YO!! DAWG you a Medic???"

"No But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night"

HAHAHAHAHA I hate stupid commercials.. "You a Medic?" "Yea I've got great news for you.... I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Geico"

[fireman1970]

I'm glad you all think the situation was under control and every first responder in the world was there, and there was no anarchy and there were a million firefighters and EMTs in the world to help everyone in New Orleans.

And I'm glad you think newspapers weren't tainting stories trying to make everyone look like looters, including police and people trying to survive getting food and water. I remember newspapers making a lot of first responders and residents look bad - just to be scandelous and sell papers.

Live through a disaster like this yourself. First hand. Then comment.

Which one of you was there, and actually helped out? And was in the area of the French Quarter where residents were still living.

I was. I remember driving by and having nothing to give those folks, and having to say "Sorry, we're out of medical supplies" on my way to the EOC on Canal Street and Harrah's Casino.

And there were very few of us first responders those first days.

And YES... we had to go into stores and get things just like everyone else. Even doctors, nurses, and first responders had to break into pharmacies. We either didn't have medical supplies, or were running out very very quickly. It took about 2 weeks before things were going well for everyone. Why do you think there are so many Senate Meetings and Investigations going on about how Katrina was botched. The lone man on the ground did the best they could.

We worked our asses off, but we absolutely were not 100% equipped or manned those first days. We did our best.

And I'm glad for the people who helped other residents. They were the ones who helped us save lives. We had tons of residents picking up other residents in boats, saving each other.

All this guy did was get his hands on medical supplies the best he could, and treat everyone around him. Who else was there? Tell me... who else was there? All I read was a man who drove around with food, water, medical supplies, and helped out.

I certainly couldn't help them. I was at the Canal St. EOC and we were busy as hell helping officers cut and scraped walking in the filthy water. And there wasn't enough of us to even help fellow first responders. Officers were coming down with infections and rashes left and right.

Sorry, but a handful of firefighters aren't supermen and can't save a whole city alone. I don't know how many I saw with good intentions, but little equipment. We just didn't have enough yet. Not for 2 weeks.

And I don't see anyone this guy treated complaining. I think they were glad to get decent medical treatment anywhere. Because your mom isn't a trained EMT - does that mean she can't treat you when you get a cut or need a wound disinfected or something simple bandaged? She might not be able to do head trauma, but your mom sure can help with simple wounds. It was like the 1800s those first days.

And I didn't read anywhere in the articles where EMTs or any other medics were coming in to treat those people in the French Quarter. It sounds to me like he was the only one.

I don't care where you get medical supplies in a natural distaster as big as Katrina. If you can help - help! And that's what that guy did. And it looks like he might have actually done a really good job and worked his *** off to help.

[chopper12]

You know what Fireman1970, your attitude really needs some adjustment. If you want to feel like a martyr and think "no one's helping, it's just me against the world", fine. But you're wrong. Our Department here in Mankato has nine full-time Firefighters - we sent TWO of them down to New Orleands for two weeks. Two out of nine. And we're a small department. I know many larger departments were sending FFs and EMTs down there, on THEIR dime. I'm sick and tired of all the complaints about how no one is helping, because it's just plain bullsh*t.

[RLFD14]

chopper, I didn't really get the feeling that 1970 was saying no one came to help, but rather that the event was too big and the help that did come did not match the need. This is not the fault of those who did or did not respond, it was just fact.

My first reaction to the "Holiday Inn Express Medic" with the thift-store uniform was the same I have for the average whacker/wannabe - a sardonic grin over my distaste for this type of goofball.... but when you get down to it, at least the guy seems to have honestly been trying to help, didn't seem to be getting any personal gain whatsoever, used his own vehicle and perhaps came in harm's way more than the person who simply fled the area with regard to only saving their own skin. Yeah, clearly a bit beyond the good samaritan clause, but many MANY shades of improvement over the mutt pushing bloated corpses aside to loot a few cases of Heineken.

[cellblock]

All this guy did was get his hands on medical supplies the best he could, and treat everyone around him. Who else was there? Tell me... who else was there? All I read was a man who drove around with food, water, medical supplies, and helped out.

Dude, I started this thread to point out a obvious problem that popped up during the response to the storm. IMPERSONATERS. People who put together 'thrift store' uniforms, put Red Cross signs they made with magic markers on their dash boards, and scammed their way into the disaster area.
I have no problem with trained, requested responders going to help. I personally had to pass through 3 State Police roadblocks to get to my EMT job the day after Katrina hit. I was in uniform, had credentials and paperwork stating I was an essential employee. Other responders, who had a reason to be there, had similar paperwork. They busted their butts and I give them their due.
But when State Police were blocking the radio and cellphone techs from entering the area to restore communications I think it's criminal guys like this managed to slip through.
He misrepresented himself as a firefighter. He practiced medicine on people with no training other than what he had seen on TV or in movies. That's wrong.

And I don't see anyone this guy treated complaining. I think they were glad to get decent medical treatment anywhere.

That's just it. They didn't get decent medical treatment. They got patched up by someone who watched Baywatch for his medical training.

And I didn't read anywhere in the articles where EMTs or any other medics were coming in to treat those people in the French Quarter.

That's because they were busy getting people the hell out of town as fast as possible. There were steady convoys of ambulances and other emergency vehicles running up I-10 to various medical facilities.

It sounds to me like he was the only one.

He wasn't the only one. In fact he wasn't one at all. There was a mandatory evac order. These people were not "survialists" as the article called them. They are survivers who decided to ignore orders to get out and then relied on some disaster tourist to bandage thier cuts. They had no business there. He had no business driving in there. He would have done better packing the injured into his car and driving them out to places like LaPlace where I work. He could have driven people out to Gonzales and dropped them at the Lamar Dixion Shelter where I volunteered providing Emergency Communications after the storm.

I don't care where you get medical supplies in a natural distaster as big as Katrina. If you can help - help! And that's what that guy did. And it looks like he might have actually done a really good job and worked his *** off to help.

I'm all for helping. Help by doing what you know where you are authorized. There were many ways to help without lying your way into a dangerous situation. You can volunteer without putting on someone elses uniform and pretend to be someone you aren't. I really don't care whether he worked his *** off or not. He had no business there and he certainly had no business impersonating a Firefighter or Red Cross member.
I know several people who responded with their own boats and rescued people from floodwaters. They did this at their own risk and they did it without pretending to be firefighters or EMTs. They didn't put Red Cross signs on their dashes and impersonate. They worked their butts off but did so without doing the stuff this guy did. They got people OUT, not to a bar where they could hole up without any city services.