A Physician Volunteers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Story By Terri Homer

When I retired from my San Francisco Bay Area medical practice in the specialty of anesthesiology in 2013 and moved to Oregon, I immediately applied for my medical license in my new home state.

I knew that medical volunteer work would be a part of my retirement life just as it had been in my professional life. During my 34-year career, as an anesthesiologist, I volunteered on 30 surgical mission trips in developing countries in Central and South America and Southeast Asia. On those surgical trips, we performed pediatric plastic reconstructive surgery including cleft lip and palate repair, burn scar release and grafting, hand surgery, etc.

This volunteer work changed my life in so many ways, not just professionally, but spiritually. The experiences on all of these trips were incredibly memorable and taught me to be a more resourceful and confident physician and, most of all, a more compassionate one. While on these trips, I had the freedom to use my skills in unusual settings, helping so many to live better lives as a result of our medical intervention. What could be more gratifying than that?

When the COVID pandemic first began in the spring of 2020, like everyone else, I was terrified. Remember that early on, there was not much known about this ‘novel’ coronavirus, except that it was contagious and deadly. The mode of transmission was not certain: was it airborne or transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces? Until we knew more about this virus and how to contain it, we went into complete lockdown, an extremely drastic measure.

By April 2020, Governor Brown notified everyone who had a healthcare professional license in good standing that we were needed on the frontlines, either in a hospital ICU, or as a volunteer. Even those of us who were retired, if we had a current medical professional license, were needed.

Well, that was all I had to hear. If I could volunteer as a physician during this medical crisis, I could turn around my fear and instead be part of the medical team that would help us navigate through the pandemic.

When I searched the internet for opportunities to volunteer as a physician in my community, I was directed to SERV-OR, (State Emergency Registry of Volunteers in Oregon), a database of licensed health care professionals who have registered to volunteer in response to Federal, State and local emergencies. SERV-OR directed me to the Linn County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). MRC units are community-based (part of a national network) and function as a way to locally organize and utilize volunteers who want to donate their time and expertise to prepare for and respond to emergencies. After being credentialed by SERV-OR, I contacted the Director of the Linn County MRC, Neva Anderson, and she signed me up as a volunteer immediately.

The first assignment was to participate as a COVID tester in a drive-by testing setup in the parking lot of the Linn County Expo Center. This mass testing site functioned from spring through the summer of 2020 several days per week. I’ll never forget how hot it was as we stayed there for hours on end in full PPE (gown, N-95 mask, face shield and double gloves). We were busy, since we often had entire vans filled with employees driving through to be tested.

In addition to the drive through testing clinics (remember that this was summer 2020, before vaccines were available), I spent one or two days per week with Linn County Health MRC going to senior residences and adult foster homes all over Linn County to test those individuals who were unable to make it to the mass testing sites.

As we moved into fall and winter of 2020, with cooler temperatures, we moved our mass testing drive-through site indoors at the Expo Center. At one point, the Expo Center moved us into the building that housed horses and other animals during special events. That was an interesting location. No animals were there at the time, obviously, but there was plenty of hay all around.

In December of 2020, MRC Director Neva Anderson told me that vaccines were going to be available soon, and she wanted me to get vaccinated ASAP so that I could be a vaccinator in the various outreach clinics they were going to have before starting mass vaccination clinics. I spent a lot of time over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in 2020 taking the online state required courses and exams in order to qualify as a vaccinator. Despite the fact that I was a licensed physician, all vaccinators had to take these courses to learn everything we could about these new vaccines so we could answer questions, prepare, and handle the vaccines properly.

In the very beginning of January of 2021, I received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine and my second dose a month later. Soon after, beginning the second week of February 2021, I began volunteering as a vaccinator a few days per week with the MRC outreach clinics held in Fire Departments, homeless shelters, adult foster homes, large businesses (eg, Target Distribution Center, Clayton Homes, Selmet Inc, etc.)

By the end of February, we began our mass vaccination clinics at the Linn County Expo Center where I volunteered two days a week (nine-hour shifts). There were days when we vaccinated as many as 3000 people in one day. It was exhausting, but incredibly rewarding. Not only did we administer vaccines but answered many, many questions, and comforted frightened teenagers once they qualified for vaccines. My fellow vaccinators included physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and medical students. The clinics were a madhouse at times, but extremely well run, which inspired most of us to keep volunteering.

In addition to the mass vaccine clinics, I spent one or two days per week with a Linn County Health employee traveling throughout Linn County vaccinating those who were homebound (in some instances, bedbound) with physical or mental disabilities. We went as far east as Sweet Home and Cascadia and as far north as Mill City. Although all of my volunteer work with the MRC had been extremely rewarding, this experience of going into people’s homes (or trailers, after they lost their home due to wildfires) all over the county was the most rewarding of all. At the time, many of the people we were visiting would not have received a vaccine if we hadn’t met them in their home. I’m grateful that Linn County offered this service to so many.

When the mass vaccination clinic closed for the summer of 2020, we thought the COVID pandemic was going to start to recede. Of course, we didn’t anticipate the Delta variant (far more contagious than the original Beta COVID strain) or the degree of vaccine hesitancy that existed throughout the community.

Our “honeymoon period” in the beginning of the summer came to an end as we saw the number of COVID cases climb to alarming rates in August. Throughout the summer we held smaller outreach clinics in Linn County at music festivals and in downtown Albany. We had few takers and had to lower our expectations for success.

The majority of those that came to us for vaccinations in the late summer and early fall were coming because of the vaccine mandates put in place by the Governor. Instead of grateful patients, I was faced with very angry ones, and for the first time since I started my pandemic volunteer work, I had vaccine recipients who did not hesitate to let me know how resentful they were. Some wouldn’t talk to me or even look at me. What a change in attitude from the days when the vaccines first became available and most people couldn’t wait to be vaccinated.

Now that boosters are approved for the Pfizer vaccine (and very soon for the Moderna and the J&J vaccines), we’ve once again started mass vaccination clinics at the Linn County Expo Center. Through October, we will be there every Tuesday and Wednesday from 11am to 6pm with all three vaccines available. This time, we decided to have the clinics as drive-through, which seems to be much easier for most people.

In November, we’ll hold mass vaccine clinics in Lebanon (the Expo center is not available to us in November) and then we’ll be back at the Expo Center in December for as long as needed. I am volunteering there at least one or two days per week. I am also still frequently performing COVID tests in adult group homes that are still having COVID outbreaks! Unfortunately, many of the staff in those privately owned group homes are unvaccinated and therefore able to spread the virus.

A few months ago, because of the vaccine mandates and to keep promoting the benefits of the COVID vaccines, the Oregon Health Authority began holding vaccine clinics all over Oregon, even in remote areas. They asked for physician volunteers to act as medical consultants for these clinics. This consultant work is done remotely, which allows me to consult for many of these clinics every week, sometimes multiple clinics in a day. The medical assistants and nurses administering the vaccines in these clinics will call me when the patient has a question or has had a reaction to a vaccine in the past or has a complicated medical history. Once again, I’m grateful that I can volunteer during this pandemic in yet another way, even hundreds of miles away from home.

The way I look at it, I am one of the lucky ones who was born into very modest circumstances but received an incredible education. With the help of loans and scholarships, I went to medical school and then had a very successful career as an anesthesiologist. My work as a physician is a lifelong calling, not a job. As such, as long as I can volunteer and share my skills to help the community, I will continue to do so.