[StBernard] A new hospital in St. Bernard Parish

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard - There has only been one public place for urgent medical care
in St. Bernard Parish since Hurricane Katrina. While the trailer facility is
equipped to treat a number of aliments, the most serious cases require a
hospital.

After waiting nearly 5 years, the possibility of a hospital has finally
become a reality.

Councilman Wayne Landry says the Hospital Service Board and the Meraux
Foundation have now agreed to the language in the donation documents.

Landry says, "Those documents, once they're signed will be forwarded to the
state and we will be waiting for them to literally say go ahead and we can
start building our hospital."

Construction could begin in as soon as 2 weeks on the 11 and half acres
donated by the Meraux Foundation.

Phillip Wendling is the project executive. He says the new hospital will be
a state of the art facility with an electronic medical recording keeping
system and all digital equipment.

Wendling says, "This is going to be a 2 story 40 bed hospital. It will be
about 104,000 square feet."

Tens of thousands of residents have not returned to the parish since the
storm. Some believe a new hospital will give people a reason to come home.

Rita Gue with the Meraux Foundation says, "We're so excited about this
becoming a reality. We really want to thank Parish President Craig Taffaro
and Danny Dysart for their support on the project." 





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I love the fact that Gue had no comments or thanks for Mutt (Landry) and
Jeff (Cavignac)!