Hurricane Harvey sends Beaumont patient to Round Rock

Clarance McAllister took an unexpected trip after torrential rain and strong winds from Hurricane Harvey hit his hometown.

Through a series of escalating events, McAllister found himself being airlifted from Memorial Hermann Baptist Hospital to St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center days after Harvey made landfall.

The 47-year-old Beaumont resident became the first person to be transported from that hospital to St. David’s Round Rock during the historic weather phenomenon. The transfer was necessary due to McAllister suffering from ketoacidosis, a type of diabetes that causes the body to produce high levels of blood acid.

While hospital transfers are fairly common, most are ground transfers, said Tami Taylor, chief nursing officer at St. David’s Round Rock. Among those, acutely ill patients are only occasionally transferred by helicopter.

Like many others in the area, McAllister said he closely watched weather reports leading up to Hurricane Harvey, which reached landfall late Aug. 25. At first, he said, rainfall in the Beaumont area did not seem like a threat. But as the hurricane’s movement slowed down, flood waters began to rise.

“I’ve never seen it rain that much,” he said. “It came in sheets. We got a break every now and then, but it (only) slowed down. Then it would start back.”

Electricity at McAllister’s house went out late Aug. 25, he said. He began to feel weak and had chest pains.

“I couldn’t move,” he said. “The stress probably didn’t help any.”

McAllister’s parents eventually took him to the hospital on Aug. 30. The next day, he said, hospital staff were looking at his lab results to determine whether he needed to be transferred. Within an hour of getting the news, staff told him he would be leaving.

“I was like, ‘you got to be kidding me,’” he said. “I had just bought some food.”

The flight from Beaumont to Round Rock took about two hours, which included a half-hour fuel stop. McAllister said staff strapped him in for safety measures and “took pretty good care of me.” He said the same when he reached the Round Rock medical center.

“Everybody is treating me really good,” he said. “Anytime I ask for anything, they help me out.”

Last week, McAllister said he was unsure of the extent of damage his house or his parents’ house sustained from flood waters. He said he has never experienced anything close to it.

“A lot of people down there are still hurting,” he said. “It’s hard to get people to leave their homes. That’s what they work for their whole lives.”

McAllister’s brother, Kevin McAllister, flew in from New Jersey, and his cousin, Terrell Edison, also headed to the medical center to support him. Now, McAllister said, it is time to focus on healing.

“The first priority is getting back on my feet,” he said. “Then I can weigh on helping out my parents.”