Some Florida residents had difficulty accessing medications and health care in the wake of the storm.
Aria BendixA week earlier, Hurricane Ian had torn through Fort Myers, Florida, where he lives, leaving homes flooded, knocking out power and sewage, and disrupting water lines.
Sara said she wasn't able to get hold of Roy's doctor after the storm, and that left Roy"missing two of the most important medicines that he takes." The second prescription, pregabalin, is for nerve pain. At the same time, many hospitals are seeing an influx of new patients who were injured or whose medical conditions worsened because of the hurricane. And they’re experiencing staffing shortages.
Roy and Sara Key moved to Florida from Chattanooga, Tennessee, in April after their house there was destroyed in a tornado. But Roy had not yet been properly registered as a veteran living in Florida before Ian hit, Sara said, so the VA considered him displaced. That made it difficult to get his prescriptions at a VA pharmacy in Lee County.
Dr. Adam Perry, DispatchHealth’s regional medical director, said the patients the company is seeing now are around 80 years old, on average, and many suffer from health conditions exacerbated by the region's storm-related power outages, transportation issues or pharmacy and health provider closures.Perry said many households still lack running water or operational sewage lines, and cell service in Fort Myers remains spotty.
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