USA Trauma Surgeon Shares First-Hand Experiences at Disaster Preparedness Meeting

Dr. Sidney Brevard, associate professor of surgery at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, will speak at the opening session of HealthSouth Corporation’s Annual Medical Directors’ meeting. The meeting will be held at the Lowes Hotel in New Orleans on Dec. 5, 2010.

This year’s meeting focuses on disaster preparedness. Dr. Brevard, who was working at Charity Hospital in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, will share his first-hand experiences.

"We spent five days in the hospital," Dr. Brevard said. "More than 1,000 staff and patients were there at the time, and we had no electricity, no running water and a minimal supply of food and medication. With 20 years of military training in the Air Force, I treated the situation like another deployment. It was very similar."

Dr. Brevard currently serves as a trauma surgeon in the Level I Trauma Center at the USA Medical Center. Prior to his appointment at USA, he was director of the Air Force Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (CSTARS) in Baltimore.

Dr. Brevard is certified by the American Board of Surgery in general surgery and critical care. He is a diplomat for the American Board of Surgery, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Society of Air Force Clinical Surgeons and the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.