Helping Hand From fighter jets to flood waters, Dr. John David Mullins' career has taken interesting spins. by Graham Garrison Not long after Hurricane Katrina hit, John David Mullins, M.D., a plastic surgeon practicing in Atlanta, received a phone call. He, like everyone else around the country, saw the images of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Buildings destroyed. Towns underwater. People left homeless and hungry. That's when the National Guard Surgeon General made calls to state surgeons as part of a national relief effort to not only help the victims, but also help the aid workers already exhausted from the disaster. Mullins, as the Georgia Air National Guard State Air Surgeon, joined other physicians traveling to the Gulf Coast to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Getting to New Orleans proved somewhat difficult. Mullins had to stock up on food and water for five days worth of supplies, and make frequent stops for gasoline, because he never knew if the next town would be depleted. He took a few alternate routes because major roads like Interstae 10 had been destroyed during the storm. But eventually, Mullins and his team, comprised of doctors with specialties ranging from oral surgery to a disease specialist, arrived in New Orleans. "They wanted to have a full capability medical facility down there in New Orleans," he says. "I and others were asked to go. We didn't know what was down there. We knew that the USS Okinawa (a hospital vessel) was coming. The people that we were going to help spell, they're the heroes, the people at the Superdome and the Convention Center." Mullins and his team set up at a naval station in New Orleans with the intent to build a fully capable medical station for evacuees. Luckily for them, however, one of the local hospitals came up to speed for surgery emergencies. "We did find a local hospital that came up to speed with intact operating rooms," Mullins says. "There's no reason to use a field hospital when you've got a real operating room available. I contacted the plastic surgeon who was there. He had moved his family out to Houston, his house was underwater and so he was living there in the hospital." As local doctors and emergency personnel were taxed to the limit, more help arrived in the form of out-of-state medical teams and National Guard units. Many of the physicians had war-time training, either in current conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in past wars. Mullins said many of those vets told stories of the frustration of performing disaster relief in an American city and region. "Doing a war-time-type triage in peace time is a very difficult thing," he says. "Unfortunately, disaster plans often demand that. The hospital staffs not only had to deal with the disaster going on around them, but they also had their homes and families to worry about. The same thing with the local Guard and police." When not helping with reconstructive surgery and other medical situations, Mullins says keeping track of all the relief efforts was a monumental task. Hundreds of aircraft, from helicopters to supply planes, were converging on the area, so staying on top of communication efforts was a monumental task in and of itself. Mullins and other physicians also helped on rescue missions aboard the helicopters. Frequently, the hurricane victims would simply ask for supplies, rather than being airlifted out of the area. "They really didn't want to go to a shelter," he says. "They had everything they needed on that bridge. (This one man) had some MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). We left him some water and some more MREs and he was happy to wait until the water went down. I don't know what ever happened to he and his family. That was kind of the mentality down there: ÔI don't want to go, come check again tomorrow.' Mullins is at home around aircraft. After graduating from Emory University School of Medicine, he was assigned to a flight squadron as its flight surgeon. While taking care of the medical needs of the pilots, flight personnel and, oftentimes, their families, Mullins also logged a lot of flight time as a passenger in jet fighters, part of the job requirements. He's flown in F-15s, F-104s and F-105s, among others. Mullins says he enjoys all the traveling his profession has provided, but also likes the challenges of his practice in Atlanta provides.Being a plastic surgeon has allowed him to help countless patients with procedures such as reconstruction and cosmetic surgery. He has also been able to travel to locations in Central America and the Caribbean for medical aid. Mullins spends some of his free time in the air with his own plane (he's a rated pilot) and occasionally with some friends in an acrobatic plane that can do stunts. He's also a seasoned banjo player, playing at places like Six Flags, and even as part of a celebration at Chastain Park. Although his primary commitment is to his family and his practice, being able to help in a pinch is something Mullins says he enjoys. "To be a complete community citizen and still do the things that sometimes require you to be away," he says.

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