For the people that worked there, you know, this was part of what our training was.

And a lot of people that worked at that hospital, we were attracted to a kind of chaotic environment.

That's why we were there.

This is death, sex, and money in New Orleans.

The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot

and need to talk about more.

I'm Anna Sale.

When the thick summer heat settles over New Orleans,

it all comes back to Kirsta Kurtzberg.

The body remembers when it gets hot, I tend to have

more dreams. It's hurricane season too. So, you know, you hear on the news, okay, and you're thinking

to yourself, I got to make sure I have a tank full of gas. I have to have these things in place in

case I need to evacuate. Ten years ago, Kirsta didn't evacuate.

She was inside New Orleans Charity Hospital, the public hospital that had served New

Orleans residents, rich and poor, in some form since the 18th century.

Charity Hospital was a pretty chaotic place, day in and day out.

So there was that level of that this was what we always did, maybe just a little bit more

insane. Kirsta is a rehab physician, and as Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees failed, she was with more

than 350 stranded patients. Water flooded into the hospital, windows were shattered by the wind, and there was no

power. It's like by now it's 106 degrees. There are no lights. We're reduced to feeding people

very small portions. Kirsta was interviewed by Anna Devere Smith, the actor and playwright, about two

months after the storm. That became a monologue in Devere Smith's one-woman show about health care in America that's called Let Me Down Easy. I played a recording of the monologue for Kirsta when we met up in New Orleans. Let's listen now. I tried to keep a kind of stiff up her lip in the beginning. You know, hey, we're going to get out of here. Don't worry about it. Blah, blah, blah.

...