Providing emergency assistance through disaster

As the flood waters rose in eastern Kentucky, Brenda Baker, MD, watched a practice she has spent her entire career building wash away.

“All I could think about was how to keep serving my patients,” said Dr. Baker. “We’re the only medical practice in town and everything was completely under water.”

Dr. Baker is an independent family medicine specialist in the small town of Neon, Kentucky, where she has dedicated nearly 30 years to serving patients. When the flooding began, water completely filled her office, ruining equipment, supplies and medications at a time when the community would be needing her most. While filled with determination to keep her patients healthy, she did not know where to turn.

“It was daunting to think about how to recover," said Dr. Baker. "But then you have people like Baptist Health who stepped in to help. They really were lifesavers.”

In response to the situation, Baptist Health’s Wellness on Wheels mobile health clinic was loaded with supplies such as boxes of gloves, wipes, gauze and other clinical items and sent to mobilize a temporary clinic at a local middle school. Volunteers from Baptist Health Corbin organized staffing to provide care.

Thanks to the generous philanthropic support provided by 200 donors throughout the United States, more than 70 patients received care such as tetanus and hepatitis A vaccinations, COVID-19 tests, intravenous fluids and more.

Approximately $42,000 was donated to the Baptist Health Foundation Emergency Assistance Fund, which Baptist Health matched, enabling the mobile medical unit to remain in the affected communities during the peak of the crisis.

“Even as the unit departed, Baptist Health left us with supplies, a generator and a portable Wi-Fi unit to ensure care continues to be provided as we start the process of moving forward,” said Dr. Baker.

As natural disasters affected the state, Baptist Health was quick to respond and offer help.