The Katrina Disaster: Remember Dr. Alton Ochsner

Remember Dr. Alton Ochsner?

When it was advertised that smoking cigarettes was masculine and even good for your health, Dr. Ochsner would show us a black lung from a smoker and a pretty pink lung from a non-smoker. He has pointed out that the black lung condition could and did cause cancer. Seeing that, some people quit smoking.

I was reminded of this when I saw a television ad for a major tobacco company. The ad provides information to help people quit smoking. More important to the company, which can’t advertise their smoking products, it gives them brand recognition which is very important for large companies.

The FCC, which has not learned how to control TV obscenity, blatantly allows the company to run these ads. The tobacco company has the FCC on a weak move. I learned this from Fred Slodcroft. Fred is a janitor at the FCC office building in Gettysburg.

I said, “Fred, how are things at the FCC?”

Leaning on her broom expertly, she said, “Those tobacco ads have us all confused.”

“Why, Fred? The ads tell people not to smoke. That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Fred Slodcroft, “but it also gives recognition to the company’s brand.”

I don’t think any of us have any doubts about the damage caused by Katrina.

I spoke with Sandra Murphy at the Ochsner Foundation in New Orleans. “For nearly 60 years, Ochsner has served the residents of the greater New Orleans communities.

“Ochsner’s main campus, which includes the hospital and clinic, is located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, but the Ochsner Clinic Foundation (OCF) has 24 clinics located throughout the region, including the North Shore and Baton Rouge.”

Sandra told me that three clinics were lost to Katrina with extensive damage to the hospital and other clinics. Read about the Foundation at http://www.ochsner.org/. She’ll find some interesting stories about the Clinic’s response to the storm and the conditions afterward.

At this time, the Foundation has important economic needs to supply the medical services that the area requires. They are also raising money to rebuild the houses of their employees.

I had to wait a long time to reach a receptionist from the Foundation due to the high demand for their medical services.

You can contribute to the Ochsner Clinic Foundation by sending your donation to:

Ochsner Clinic Foundation (article by Jones)

1514 Jefferson Highway

New Orleans, LA 70121

1-800-874-8984

1-504-842-3000

I am an old man, but I knew that tobacco causes cancer because my parents taught me long before Dr. Ochsner showed us pink and black lungs. But Dr. Ochsner really drew everyone’s attention to the danger.

He was born in 1942 in Kimble, South Dakota. He is a graduate of the University of South Dakota and Washington Medical School in St. Louis (where my number 2 son is a pediatric anesthesiologist). At age 31, he became president of the Tulane University Clinic of Surgery.

Sandra said that she died in 1984.

Remember Dr. Alton Ochsner and the people of New Orleans and surrounding areas!

They still need more help.

The end

by John T. Jones, Ph.D.

copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005