While the President alternately bashed the Mayor of San Juan and praised himself for the phantasmagorical official efforts allegedly taking place in Puerto Rico, my friend’s elderly mom was nearing expiration in the reality of San Juan.
Madeline “Sally” Hennessey, 80, retired nurse and a Carcinoid Cancer patient was fading fast as her oxygen generator ran out of batteries and life-saving medication spoiled in the heat.
However, it wasn’t FEMA or the President who got her out. That honor belongs to an out-of-the-box network of do-gooders including: the United States Coast Guard (USCG), Eagles Wings Pathfinders Task Force of West Palm Beach Florida, a security guard, an Uber driver in San Juan and me making about 50 phone calls from Norfolk, Virginia.
While FEMA did make contact with Sally during an initial house-to-house survivor search shortly after Maria hit they failed to follow up.
"They [FEMA] came in. I told them my situation. They said I wasn’t an emergency," Sally says. "That’s fair. But they never came back. That was the last time we saw FEMA."
Sally wasn’t a tourist who got stuck there after Hurricane Maria. She moved from the New Jersey shore to San Juan four years ago because the climate eased her breathing issues. Carcinoid Cancer attacks the lining of the lungs and stomach. The machine insures her breathing, while the medication keeps her from vomiting herself to death.
The anti-vomiting drug she needs to survive comes in a shot she gets once a month. She had three days left before she needed her next dose. There was zero hope of getting the shot in San Juan.
Sally lives at the Ashford Imperial Apartments, a block from the San Juan oceanfront, which is not assisted living. Because her apartment is on the 18th floor and there was no electricity to run the elevator Sally was living in the lobby on a lounge chair alongside other elderly and infirm residents.
In desperation, her daughter Beth Hennessey-O’Brien (my childhood friend) called me for help.
I’d seen on Twitter that the Coast Guard had been sent to check the port in San Juan. I knew the Coasties were going to be our play because, frankly, I know that the USCG always answers the phone. Also, they don’t need to get their teams warmed up because their rescue engines are always revved. Semper paratus isn’t just the motto of the United States Coast Guard, they actually are "always prepared." Why they are so woefully underfunded is a mystery.
Sally Hennessey with her grandchildren.
As expected, the USCG picked up the phone on my first call. Passenger Vessel Mass Rescue Operations Specialist Paul Culver in USCG Sector Miami explained that USCG resources in Puerto Rico were limited. However, rather than shrugging off the request he made a call to Scott Lewis, director of and Eagles Wings Pathfinders Task Force out of West Palm Beach, Fla.
Although Sally had a ticket on Delta Airlines, San Juan International Airport had descended into an airless pit of despair with little hope of commercial flights becoming available in time. In the end, Delta cancelled her flight, refunding only half of the First Class price in the form of a voucher.
Lewis had been planning a cargo run, but quickly shifted gears to fund-raise for a passenger jet instead. Eagles Wings’ new mission was to evacuate Sally and others. The rescue flight was funded by the Law Firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley of Pennsylvania.
“This is an extremely dangerous situation for people dependent on pharmaceuticals,” Lewis told me in a phone interview. “It’s growing into something potentially catastrophic.”
Since being rescued on September 26, Sally has worked to pay it forward by sharing the network of resources that saved her, with doctors in Puerto Rico. Her efforts resulted in three rescues the first week.
"I’m alive because the Coast Guard and private citizens reached out and cared," she said, during a call from her brother’s home near Naples, Fla. Because the cancer affects her lungs she gulps air between sentences.The fact that she's now spending her days making calls is remarkable.
Sally (Right) on board the Eagles Wings jet heading to West Palm Beach with medical staff and other victims.
"The people in my building took care of me when they didn’t have a place to sleep themselves," she explains. "Donald Trump called Puerto Ricans ‘lazy.’ He should meet our building security guard who worked 36 hours straight while his own roof was blown off and his family lost everything.”
Before leaving San Juan Sally handed over the keys to her apartment and all the cash she had on hand to the guard in hope he and his family can hang on until tangible aid arrives.
Sally says she’s thrilled to see celebrities like Lin Manuel Miranda, Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel, Pit Bull, Jennifer Lopez and Stephen Colbert stepping up to help, but urges regular people like herself to do all they can as well.
“The Coast Guard took care of me. The Eagles Wings people really took care of me. Even an Uber driver came for me when he knew how dangerous it was to try to get to the airport,” she concludes. “Not FEMA. Certainly not Donald Trump, who I think has access to a few private jets!”
She adds, “We can’t forget about Puerto Rico. People like me are still in crisis there and it’s clear they’re not a priority for this administration.”
Sally’s right. If we don’t want to see Puerto Rico become a mass grave we’re going to have to work together as private citizens with whatever government agencies are willing to help us and do this thing ourselves.