Camp Fire medicine

What are the medical needs when your WHOLE town burns down? What is it like to walk into a shelter with over a thousand friends and family still missing? What if the evacuees you are caring for are your neighbors? The California wildfires have been huge part of our personal and professional lives at UC Davis. In this Heartbeat we spoke with an EM resident who volunteered at a shelter in Chico, CA. Dr. Molly Hallweaver discusses what she saw, treated, and learned taking care of the victims of the Camp Fire. Burn care and inhalation injuries were not the most common needs in the shelter. More often people needed a shoulder on which to cry and treatment of chronic medical needs. 

We challenge you to think about what you would do if your community was burning down?  What if your hospital caught on fire? On our next episode we hear the story of Dane Stevenson, a Kaiser EM Physician, whose hospital caught on fire and the experts who can help the rest of us know what we can do to prepare for those moments. Let’s continue the conversation on social media @empulsepodcast or at ucdavisem.com.

Host: Dr. Julia Magaña, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at UC Davis

Guest: Dr. Molly Hallweaver  Emergency Medicine Resident at UC Davis

Resources: If you want to help the victims of the Camp Fire, monetary donations may be made to the American Red Cross. Visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

The United Way of Northern California is taking donations for its NorCal Fire Relief Fund through its website and by text: send the message BUTTEFIRE to 91999.

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Join us in Tahoe, March 4-8, at the 42nd Annual UC Davis Emergency Medicine Winter Conference!

Thank you to the UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine for supporting this podcast and to Orlando Magaña at OM Audio Productions for audio production services.

NASA Image of the Camp Fire