What medicine is all about
Posted: February 23, 2010
On an unusual September morning, medical student Kealoha Robinson dodged coconuts, narrowly missed boulders, and arrived terrified at her training hospital in American Samoa.
She miraculously escaped injury in an earthquake and tsunami that left 119 people dead on Sept. 29, 2009.
A student of the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Robinson, M.P.H., OMS III, was assigned to the Wai’anae, Hawaii, Community Campus as part of the school’s contextual learning model, which provides students with an early career opportunity to learn clinical aspects of medicine. Students undertake clerkships in one of 11 community campuses located nationwide, serving people with limited access to healthcare.
While based in Hawaii, Robinson’s Polynesian ancestry and interest in Pacific Island health led her to join the obstetrics/gynecology and emergency medicine department at LBJ Tropical Medical Center in Faga’alu, American Samoa, in June 2009. Her clerkship duties included completing low-risk and high-risk prenatal visits, deliveries, and participating in various emergency medicine related activities.
On that fateful September morning, five minutes after she arrived, a tsunami warning was issued. In less than an hour, the tsunami flattened villages, pulverized homes, and left scores dead.
“Everything happened so fast, and there was minimal time to seek higher ground,” she says.
Assisting the emergency response team, Robinson began evacuating patients and others in the community. Residents living on mountain tops opened their homes to patients and others who needed help. “What was so heartwarming was the teamwork within the community. People from all walks of life came together as one to help.”
The SOMA medical student became the “doctor” assigned to the east side of the island. Her team stabilized a woman with a partial limb amputation and head wounds. On the west side of the island, she assisted in providing triage and wound care and participated in two recovery missions at Pago Pago Harbor.
Her training at SOMA came in handy. Communications courses taught by Lorree Ratto, M.S., helped her navigate critical moments during the natural disaster. Robinson realized that “remaining calm and having clear communication with patients was key to assessment and patient treatment.”
She also was involved in providing medical care at a community health center located in Tafuna, assisting in transporting a patient whose house was wrecked by the tsunami.
“Hearing stories from patients on how they survived by holding onto objects or hiding behind buildings when waves were approaching really makes me appreciate the opportunity and privilege of becoming a physician,” she says.
“To me, this is what medicine is all about!”