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When most people think of emergency medicine, they think of scenes from “ER” or “Grey’s Anatomy.” Dr. Kathleen Clem sees herself being flagged over by a village chief and his entourage — wives, children, cows and goats — asking her to visit his sick mother in her thatched-roof hut made of mud and cow dung. The university’s first registered nursing graduate, Clem is now an internationally renowned doctor serving as chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Loma Linda University. She previously served as Chief of Emergency Medicine at Duke University. Under her leadership the program established a new residency program in Emergency Medicine. She began her high-profile path on campus after earning her associate’s degree in nursing from Loma Linda University. She arrived at TTU and obtained her BSN in ’82 when her husband, a minister, was transferred to the area. |
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Clem has organized medical teams and taken emergency medicine residents to established clinics and provided medical support in Tanzania, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Nepal and the Solomon Islands. She spent seven months in the People’s Republic of China, helping to organize an Emergency Department where she helped to develop an Emergency Medicine Residency program. She also spent a month in Vietnam as the medical director for an academic expedition to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. You might also recognize her from the Discovery Channel’s “Hospital,” a reality series produced during her time at Duke University Medical Center. She’s authored a book considered the best guide for physicians planning stints in Third World medicine. So what is her motivation?
“This may sound quaint, but when I was a little girl, I was always intrigued by the mission stories,” she reflected. “We have many gifts in healthcare in the U.S; it is still one of the world’s best,” Clem said. “And I felt a burden to give back to those who don’t have all the advantages.” One of Clem’s gifts is the ability to respect and adapt to the local protocols and resources available to patients. “Most countries don’t have the networking that we have,” she said. “They can’t pick up the phone and call 911. “Also, in other countries, you work by the principle ‘the most good for the most people,’” she explained. “We are very individualistic in the U.S.” Yet, at times, even in remote areas, Clem has put herself on the line to minister to just one person in need – like the chief’s ill mother. “When I arrived, there was a group of huts all in a circle, covered with briars to keep the lions out at night. The mother lay in the corner, so ill I would have put her in ICU had she been in the U.S. I felt she likely had typhoid. “I had no medicine except my personal supplies, but how could I turn the chief down? “I handed the antibiotics I had to the chief, explained how to take it, instructed him to boil the water and left my Tylenol also. “Three days later the chief walked several miles to tell me the medicine had made his mother better, and she had gotten up and cooked him breakfast. “I’m looking forward to seeing them again.” (Spring 2008) |
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