In New Orleans, Rebuilding a Health System After a Hospital Is Destroyed

HEALTH -- September 16, 2010 at 5:57 PM EDT

In New Orleans, Rebuilding a Health System After a Hospital Is Destroyed

Updated Sept. 17, 5:22 p.m. ET

When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans five years ago, the city's big public hospital, Charity Hospital, was destroyed. Charity Hospital had long served New Orleans' poor and uninsured residents.

On Thursday's NewsHour, Betty Ann Bowser reports on how doctors in New Orleans have worked to rebuild the city's health system over the past five years, using federal grants to build a network of 90 community health centers.

In the slide show below, you can see images from the dramatic evacuation of Charity Hospital, taken by Mooney Bryant-Penland, who was a nurse there at the time.

Editor's Note: Some viewers have pointed out that there is ongoing debate over whether Charity Hospital was "destroyed" by Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, officials from the state and from Louisiana State University, which ran the hospital, evaluated the building and deemed it too damaged by water and mold to reopen. However, some community activists and others argue that the building could be repaired and reopened were the political will there to do so. The New Orleans Times-Picayune recently reported on the ongoing debate.

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