Students come north and aid flows south as Yale lends a hand in wake of Katrina

Faculty and staff from all three arms of the School of Medicine—clinical, educational and scientific—quickly mobilized to lend a helping hand to victims of Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

The medical school joined an effort led by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Hospital Association and numerous other organizations to coordinate the care of storm victims, who were transported by the U.S. Department of Defense from the Gulf region to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda and medical centers around the country.

With the aid of the AAMC, two displaced students from Tulane University School of Medicine completed third- and fourth-year clinical rotations at Yale, and three others were accepted at the Yale School of Public Health.

Several researchers and postdoctoral fellows from affected institutions have relocated their labs at Yale as visiting fellows.

The faculty and staff of the School of Medicine responded energetically to a matching-gift payroll deduction program established by the officers, deans and fellows of the Yale Corporation, who collectively pledged to match all relief contributions up to $1,000 made by Yale faculty, staff and students. At press time, university-wide donations for assistance to the Gulf States, including matching gifts from the Corporation, totaled $183,676.