When Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters towered high in New Orleans, they threatened to drown the emergency generators that were keeping the premature babies alive in then Memorial Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
As the water kept rising outside, Dr. Juan Gershanik was inside coordinating efforts to move 16 babies and their 250-pound incubators to the roof to wait for helicopter transport to Baton Rouge.
In one helicopter, he held Christian Stewart, just a few weeks old at the time and weighing less than two pounds. His incubator was too heavy for the flight, so Gershanik had to leave it behind and use an oxygen tank and handheld device to squeeze every breath of air into the baby’s tiny lungs…