Inglese, Demaree 1966(?)- (Richard Demaree Inglese)

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Inglese, Demaree 1966(?)- (Richard Demaree Inglese)

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1966. Education: University of Pennsylvania, M.D.

ADDRESSES:

CAREER:

Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, clinical assistant professor; Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office, New Orleans, medical director, 2000—; also medical director for St. Tammany parish Sheriff's Office, Covington, LA. Military service: Completed military medical residency with the United States Air Force.

WRITINGS:

(With Diana G. Gallagher) No Ordinary Heroes: 8 Doctors, 30 Nurses, 7,000 Prisoners and a Category 5 Hurricane (autobiography), Kensington (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Demaree Inglese lived through Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm that in 2005 devastated the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as the rest of the Gulf Coast. Inglese earned his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, then served as a resident in internal medicine with the U.S. Air Force. Following his term of military duty, he moved to New Orleans to take a position with Tulane University. In 2000, Inglese began working as the medical director for one of the largest jails in the United States, the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office. As such, he was responsible for the health of the facility's inmates.

Katrina passed just east of New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Although it did not strike the city directly, and had weakened from the Category 5 rating—the most powerful on the scale used to measure hurricanes—the storm caused nearly all of the city's levees to breach. The levees are crucial for the city's survival, for even under ordinary conditions, New Orleans is a sunken city, with much of it being below sea level. Without the elaborate system of levees and pumps, much of the city would be underwater. Katrina caused the levees to fail, and flooding was severe and widespread throughout New Orleans and surrounding areas. Government response to the catastrophe was slow and inadequate. The weather was hot and conditions worsened rapidly as the city struggled with injuries, deaths, missing people, contaminated water, devastated emergency services, and general chaos. At the Orleans Parish jail, electrical power was lost. The supply of drinkable water and edible food was soon exhausted. In the stifling heat, the inmates began to riot. Inglese was in danger from the very men whose health he was supposed to protect. In his book No Ordinary Heroes: 8 Doctors, 30 Nurses, 7,000 Prisoners and a Category 5 Hurricane, which was written with Diana G. Gallagher, Inglese relates his experiences during the disaster, including his swim through contaminated water and his confrontations with convicts. It was a full week before any help arrived at the prison. In that time, the medical staff had not only to deal with the problems of inadequate food, water, and sanitation. Babies were born, there were broken limbs to deal with, infections, a heart attack, and a variety of real and feigned illnesses from the staff and inmates. "Like a descent into a modern-day hell, Dr. Inglese's account describes the nightmare that unfolded," stated a Kirkus Reviews writer. The story was well served by the author's tone, which was that of "dispassionate reserve that heightens our sense of shock at the squalor." His narrative "brings the human scale of the tragedy to life," stated a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Inglese, Demaree, and Diana G. Gallagher, No Ordinary Heroes: 8 Doctors, 30 Nurses, 7,000 Prisoners and a Category 5 Hurricane (autobiography), Kensington (New York, NY), 2007.