VSP Blog

Niki M. is a VSP Mobile Clinic Operations Manager.

With just a few weeks short of the one year anniversary to our nation’s 3rd most destructive hurricane, I had the honor to return to Galveston, TX  this week.  Hurricane Ike is estimated to have caused $24 billion in damage and devastated a majority of the city and all of our Galveston VSP doctor’s offices.

Last year, SeeZar, our first mobile clinic, responded within one week  when Ike touched down on September 13 as a category 2 hurricane. We sent a great group of VSP mobile response team members to staff the mobile clinic for a little over 6 weeks of disaster relief.  I was one of those staff members and spent over 4 weeks there.  There were many amazing, heartbreaking, emotional stories we heard from people in the community of how they lost their homes, pets, and even sometimes family members.  I had never been a part of a natural disaster, so not only was it an experience that I will never forget, but it also gave me a whole new appreciation for life and those I love.

A VSP doctor's office devastated from Hurricane Ike.

We made many good friends during that period of time, including our VSP doctors in the area, all of whom our hearts still go out to.  There were 4 VSP doctor’s offices that were either flooded (some with 6 feet of water!) or had trees fall into their buildings, caved-in roofs, or other major damage that left them unable to work until repaired.  Most offices had to be completely gutted and rebuilt from scratch.  One of the great things that VSP does with our community outreach program is pay the doctors to work on the mobile clinics during disasters, so they are able to make money while the work to get back to business as usual.

During natural disasters,  it is important to VSP, not only give out free exams and glasses, but also help our doctors in need.

Niki with Drs. Matocha and Ullman and staff.

We had the honor of working side by side with many of these great doctors in Galveston.  Dr. Ngala, Dr. Juarez, Dr. Matocha, Dr. Ullman, and Dr. Zein-Eldin were a few of the doctors that we were able to work with.  Naturally, working with these doctors 6 days a week, for 8 – 12 hours a day, seeing up to 65 patients per day, we created a bond.