Gulfport, MS, November 24, 2005 --(
PR.com)-- Mississippi's Forgotten - a non-profit medical relief organization formed to assist in meeting the needs of Mississippians “After The Storm” is in immediate need of cash. Since early September, 2005, just three days after the most devastating disaster to ever hit this county, the doctors of Mississippi’s Forgotten have been providing free medical care for Mississippians in need, up and down the ravaged Gulf Coast. Mississippi's Forgotten has treated over 4000 patients from tents, campers, and trailers, in shelters and parking lots and by going from house to house making house calls in the most traditional sense of the word.
Where the patients do not have insurance, Mississippi's Forgotten has provided pharmaceutical agents free of charge. In the early aftermath of the storm, Mississippi's Forgotten transported patients to emergency medical centers at local hospitals and to the Naval Hospital Ship, USS Comfort.
Mississippi's Forgotten now has administrative offices in Gulfport and is working closely with Coastal Family Health – a local non-profit that provides medical care for the un and under – insured and Hancock Medical Center. HMC is the ONLY hospital in Hancock county and was severely damaged during the storm; many of the hospital’s staff doctors are without homes and without practices, and the only options for their patients has been Coastal Family Health and the services offered by Mississippi's Forgotten.
Without an immediate cash infusion, Mississippi's Forgotten, and potentially, Coastal Family Health will have to severely cut back on services at a time when a two-day old medical needs assessment demonstrates and 5 fold increase in Mississippians who need and lack access to medical care.
Over the course of the next month, Mississippi's Forgotten plans to dispatch up to 85 mobile medical units and temporary clinics (in tents and trailers) to serve the residents of Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Long Beach: communities that were “flattened” by “the storm.”
In addition, Mississippi's Forgotten is working closely with the Interfaith Disaster Task Force, a group made up of pastors from affected areas up and down the wrecked Gulf Coast, to provide temporary shelter. Mississippi's Forgotten has donated trailers and needs funding to provide more trailers for those left homeless by “the storm” and who are still awaiting answers from FEMA. Three out of every four homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast were either completely demolished or rendered uninhabitable by “the storm.”
“It seems that America and the world have forgotten Mississippi. There are over 300,000 people without homes, people living in tents and cars and on slabs, being exposed to the elements and getting sick. People are going in their ruined homes and clearing debris and getting exposed to the mold and getting tremendously debilitating lung infections that need treatment, and who are only getting continuous exposure to more toxins because they have to get their homes, or what is left of them, cleared up” said Elizabeth Gallup MD, CEO of Mississippi's Forgotten. “Today is Thanksgiving, and even in the face of the devastation and the ever increasing lack of hope – neighbors are still helping neighbors, churches helping churches and everyone is thanking God to be alive – but help is desperately needed” said Rain Cacon MD PhD, who is Mississippi's Forgotten President and Medical Director and who has been in Mississippi for four weeks and prior to that in New Orleans. “It is a tragic situation that is worsening” – said Mary Joiner, Mississippi's Forgotten spokesperson and an Ocean Springs, MS resident. “We Need Help, we have medicines, we need cash to pay for our volunteers housing” she went on to say.
If you can help Mississippi's Forgotten, please call 228-235-3812 or send a check to Mississippi's Forgotten,
c/o Wachovia Bank, Attn: Lou
COURTHOUSE ROAD FINANCIAL CENTER
375 COURTHOUSE ROAD
GULFPORT, MS 39507
Phone: (228)896-8945
Fax: (228)896-8872
Please Help – Do not Let MISSISSIPPI continue to be FORGOTTEN
Contact: Dr. Beth “Taz” Gallup –913-238-1144, 228-235-3812, 877-427-0477
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