More than three years ago, needy children of the Gulf Coast fell prey to the sudden, torrential force of Hurricane Katrina. Today, those children are the victims of the slow and excruciatingly ineffectual system that was suppose to help them recover.

A study of the medical records of 261 poor Baton Rouge children found them to be “among the most medically needy child population in the United States,” according to the report’s summary. “Legacy of Shame: The On-going Public Health Disaster of Children Struggling in Post-Katrina Louisiana” chronicles the medical travails of children under the care of the Children’s Health Fund (CHF) Baton Rouge Project, a group that includes the poorest and most vulnerable families affected by the storm.

The study, conducted by CHF and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, found that 55 percent of the children had learning or behavioral problems, 42 percent over age 3 needed developmental or mental health services, and 42 percent had respiratory problems that might be attributable to formaldehyde exposure. Anemia, vision, and hearing problems were also found.

The sharp decline in the health of the extremely needy children can be credited to bureaucratic inaction in providing services, according to a Newsweek interview with CHF President Irwin Redlener.

"As awful as the initial response to Katrina looked on television, it's been dwarfed by the ineptitude and disorganization of the recovery,” Redlener told the Magazine.