Skip to main content

Civilization s Thin Veneer: The Evacuation of Bellevue

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


The nation’s oldest public hospital—and the premier emergency institution in New York City—is the go-to place in the aftermath of a plane or train wreck, an all-out gunfight or a commercial airliner slicing through a skyscraper. Its staff has spent enormous time in preparation for the numerous scenarios—chemical, biological, nuclear—for which New York is the expected target.

Now it too has become a casualty of Sandy as the last 200 or so of the hospital’s 725 patients were being evacuated Wednesday night after fuel pumps for backup generators failed, a similar fate to what befell nearby NYU Langone Medical Center.

My colleague Larry Greenemeier pointed to the need for a fundamental reassessment of the city's urban infrastructure after the post-posttropical storm cleanup finishes. Planning for the next time—Good Night Irene—will by necessity require taking into account public-health preparedness.


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Bellevue, the first responder for so many health-care firsts, will be at those meetings because of its karmic history. Bellevue developed New York's first sanitary code, a worldwide precedent. It established the first hospital catastrophe unit. The first ICU in a municipal hospital went there. The list is actually quite a bit longer.

Bellevue has always been a bulwark of tough-guy New York, ready for the unexpected. Now it needs to set a new example in preparing for the unpredictable health requirements of a densely packed populace that faces a rising tide of warming salt water that threatens to make the Big Apple a physically smaller place.

 

Image Source: Jim Henderson

 

Gary Stix, Scientific American's neuroscience and psychology editor, commissions, edits and reports on emerging advances and technologies that have propelled brain science to the forefront of the biological sciences. Developments chronicled in dozens of cover stories, feature articles and news stories, document groundbreaking neuroimaging techniques that reveal what happens in the brain while you are immersed in thought; the arrival of brain implants that alleviate mood disorders like depression; lab-made brains; psychological resilience; meditation; the intricacies of sleep; the new era for psychedelic drugs and artificial intelligence and growing insights leading to an understanding of our conscious selves. Before taking over the neuroscience beat, Stix, as Scientific American's special projects editor, oversaw the magazine's annual single-topic special issues, conceiving of and producing issues on Einstein, Darwin, climate change, nanotechnology and the nature of time. The issue he edited on time won a National Magazine Award. Besides mind and brain coverage, Stix has edited or written cover stories on Wall Street quants, building the world's tallest building, Olympic training methods, molecular electronics, what makes us human and the things you should and should not eat. Stix started a monthly column, Working Knowledge, that gave the reader a peek at the design and function of common technologies, from polygraph machines to Velcro. It eventually became the magazine's Graphic Science column. He also initiated a column on patents and intellectual property and another on the genesis of the ingenious ideas underlying new technologies in fields like electronics and biotechnology. Stix is the author with his wife, Miriam Lacob, of a technology primer called Who Gives a Gigabyte: A Survival Guide to the Technologically Perplexed (John Wiley & Sons, 1999).

More by Gary Stix