HEALTHLINES Dr. Jamaal El-Khal sees patients in Ampla Health’s mobile unit at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds—shifts he’s taken on top of practicing primary care in Chico and Orland clinics.
behind in the haste of evacuating. Plus, of course, emotional impacts—“everyone you’d see all had a story,” he continued. “You try to remain professional and cheerful, but at the same time, you feel helpless, like what more can you do?” At the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, El-Khal and
On the scene Mobile clinic at evacuee center redefines ‘house call’
story and photo by
Evan Tuchinsky
evantuc hin sk y @ n ewsrev i ew. com
D day of real-world training. A native Oregonian attending medical
r. Jamaal El-Khal will never forget his first
school overseas, El-Khal arrived at St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken, N.J., for what he thought would be an introductory shift. He wasn’t yet a physician; as a third-year student, on his first clinical rotation, there wasn’t much he could contribute to patient care. “I could take your blood pressure,” he recalled recently. He’d wind up doing more—much more. That day was Sept. 11, 2001. “Here I am, coming from Oregon, and I knew nothing about New York except what I heard on TV,” El-Khal said, running down a list of crimes and unpleasantness. “So when they said a plane crashed into the World
12
CN&R
January 3, 2019
Trade Center, I didn’t think anything of it, because I thought, ‘OK, this stuff happens in New York.’ But when it went on [longer], with the second plane, it became surreal to me.” Victims arrived at St. Mary (now Hoboken University Medical Center) with burns, deep wounds pierced by shrapnel and eyes full of dusty debris. For his part, El-Khal treated injuries—cleansed wounds and irrigated eyes.
“People have been telling us how they appreciate us being here. That’s good to hear, that we’re actually helping people in need.” —Huda abdullah
“That was my first real big disaster,” he said, noting it was far greater than the hurricanes that struck his medical school’s campus in the Caribbean, as well as the anthrax threat that followed 9/11—for which he and other medical students had to swab people who’d opened packages, sent by mail, suspected to contain the virus. Unfortunately, it wasn’t his last big disaster. El-Khal, a primary care practitioner for Ampla Health, was driving back to Chico from Ampla’s Orland clinic when he noticed two unusual things: darkness in the earlyevening sky, emanating from eastern foothills, and heavy traffic heading opposite from him. Earlier that day, a meeting he was supposed to attend was canceled because of “the fire”; too busy seeing patients to check the news, he thought, OK, whatever, what fire? That day was Nov. 8, 2018. “The fire” was the Camp Fire, which drove more than 50,000 people off the Ridge and forced others—including El-Khal, who lives in southeast Chico—to evacuate temporarily. The blaze later was determined to be the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California history. He got a call the next morning at 7 asking if he’d be willing to come to the Chico clinic (where he also works) on his day off to help prepare for an influx of patients. Without hesitation, he agreed. As with 9/11, El-Khal found the Camp Fire aftermath “a tough, surreal thing.” People came in suffering effects of the fire: direct, such as smoke inhalation, and indirect, such as needing medicines left
his colleagues have found more to do. Ampla Health dispatched a mobile clinic to the site where the Red Cross opened a shelter for people displaced by the fire. The unit arrived on Dec. 11, a week after the facility opened. After seeing just a handful of people the first few days, the team soon was treating a dozen before lunch. “The word is getting out,” El-Khal said, “which is good. With the evacuees, they don’t know where to go—their doctor isn’t [back practicing]; some will say, ‘Check my records’ … but [the office] isn’t there anymore.” El-Khal spends one day a week at the fairgrounds, typically Friday. Other Ampla doctors come practice there, too. Huda Abdullah, a medical assistant and receptionist from the Chico clinic, is among the staff on-
aPPOInTMEnT Learn CPR, save a life
Is your New Year’s resolution to become a superhero? We have just the thing! Learning CPR and the knowledge needed to recognize an emergency can save lives. The folks at Oroville Hospital are holding a one-day Heartsaver course this Friday, Jan. 4, at 8 a.m., to teach teachers, coaches, childcare providers and other lay rescuers the skills needed to respond in emergency situations and give first aid or CPR to adults, children and infants. You’ll also learn how to use an automated external defibrillator and choking-relief techniques. The course is $55. Register or find out more information by calling 712-2140. The hospital and Enloe Medical Center (enloe.org) both regularly host CPR and first-aid courses.