Army, New York medical teams giving Houston a helping hand during pandemic

[July 17, 2020: Associated Press]

Teams of doctors and nurses from New York and the U.S. Army have descended on Houston after the nation’s fourth-largest city sought help to deal with a surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

An 86-person Army team of doctors, nurses, and support staff on Thursday worked to take over a wing of United Memorial Medical Center, a small north Houston hospital, to help it treat COVID-19 patients.

The military personnel were expected to pair up with hospital staff and treat up to about 40 patients at a time in the coming days. As the pandemic has progressed, the hospital has been rapidly dedicating more and more space to virus care.

Some of the soldiers on Thursday wore their duty uniforms. Others wore scrubs affixed with strips of surgical tape that bore their ranks, names and medical titles.

The soldiers have come from around the country, overseen by U.S. Army North in San Antonio. Around 580 Army and Navy personnel have been assigned to help fight COVID-19 in Texas.

“This facility, working with the United States military, is something that we asked for,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, standing near the soldiers as they moved through the hospital wing. “We have exhausted medical personnel that we’re so grateful to, but we didn’t have enough.”... MORE