How do we heal On wellness? and purpose Ebola doctor 2 Brain cures 6 Ice hockey save 10 Art therapy 13 Kickstarters for healing 22 CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY APRIL 2015 OUT IN FRONT As Ebola wanes, top anesthesiologist APRIL 2015 teaches readiness On the cover Transfer student and native Brazilian Pedro Zaccarelli saw his Dr. Laureen L. clock. To do their job, anesthesiologists first season with the Kingsmen soccer team end last September (Spinas ’83) Hill may need to intubate patients and get with a fractured fibula. He’s working with assistant athletic trainer visited campus access to blood vessels. Samantha Olson on lower body strength and balance, and plans in February “The people over in Africa are the real to compete in the fall. Photograph by Brian Stethem ’84. for meetings heroes…. If you think about it, it’s pretty BRIAN STETHEM ’84 on the future remarkable that western African countries of science have been able to contain and, in the case education at of Nigeria, eradicate the Ebola cases,” During last year’s Ebola outbreak, Dr. Laureen L. (Spinas ’83) Cal Lutheran. said Hill in January. “It’s such an austere Hill was part of the team that successfully treated the first two environment. And honestly, these people U.S. patients. They had been infected on a mission to care for were dying for lack of clean water and Ebola sufferers in Liberia. rubber gloves. That was how sad that was.” One of them, Dr. Kent Brantley, later observed that fear of the After seeing doctors at work on her deadly virus worked in opposite ways on the two continents: visits to Vietnam, the Andes Mountains West Africans might deny that Ebola was real, while Americans and Russia (a trip dedicated to pediatric seemed to think it was everywhere. open heart surgeries), Hill has come to 4 10 16 22 Better-informed people in both places knew the disease deeply admire medical professionals “around the world and was dangerous but containable. At Emory University Hospital how resourceful they are and what they’re able to achieve with in Atlanta – also home to the Centers for Disease Control and so little. It really is humbling.” Out in Front Q&A Class Notes Prevention (CDC) – Hill and her colleagues spent hours learning Now, her experience has positioned her to advise U.S. and 2 13 A group of paintings by an Art 26 how to “doff,” or remove, a hazmat suit and layers of clothing international colleagues on how to run a department that Department lecturer forms a and paper scrubs. treats people with Ebola, a disease that was unknown when Healing warriors record of her path back from Terry Rommereim ’78, M.Div. ’86, Milestones Mistakes in this intricate process can cause needless she attended medical school. 4 major depression. tends to the moral injuries of 36 contamination of clean zones in the special containment unit She tells them that the logistics are tough. You can’t make military veterans. for infectious disease. Although Ebola is not spread through the special training available to everyone, and the medical team Michelle Wulfestieg is Vocations should be small anyway, since it’s essential for members to air like the flu, it is highly contagious by way of bodily fluids. Highlights 16 wishing you a good day 38 After a career training elite “As someone who works and lives in an operating room, maintain their new skills. The team must also be large enough Through two strokes, partial athletes, Robb Bolton ’96 I’m very familiar with sterile techniques, sterile zones and all to cover the unit 24 hours a day, bearing in mind doctors’ many 6 paralysis, a great college course learned all about strength from of that, contamination and decontamination,” said Hill, the commitments. In Memoriam and a near-death experience, this cancer survivors. chief of anesthesiology and department chair at Emory since In the 1980s when Hill was applying to medical school, it 8 ’04 graduate found her purpose 2011. “But this took it to another level. Many of us on the team was not easy to get accepted out of a small liberal arts college, Letters serving terminally ill patients. Links had never taken care of anybody with that degree of isolation even with a solid science background and high grades and test 9 39 precautions.” scores. She thinks that has changed. Game plan for overtime How to lend a hand “It can take up to half an hour, easily, to doff,” she said. “Medicine has gotten smarter over the last few decades and 10 Ice hockey, says Scott Klein ’90, 22 from 8,000 miles Ultimately, Emory cleared four people of Ebola, a victory for realized that people coming out of those kinds of educational can save your life. The referee While exposing a lot of unmet the hospital and the U.S. health system. The first two patients experiences are the kind of people we want to take care of our has outlived his life expectancy need, online fundraising drives arrived early in August and were released within the month. patients,” she said. “You know, they have a perspective. They’ve with cystic fibrosis by decades. are offering new ways to help Although she could not provide details, Hill said that tapped into other dimensions of themselves that might include friends, family and strangers. she had a “tiny” role in caring for these patients, especially compassion and ethics and much, much more than science, compared with nurses who remained with them around the science, science. I would do it all over again.” 2 CLU MAGAZINE CLUMAGAZINE Terry Rommereim ’78, M.Div. ’86, makes his rounds Publisher on a Friday morning at the VA hospital in Fresno. Lynda Paige Fulford, M.P.A. ’97 Photographs by Brian Stethem ’84 and text by Kevin Matthews Editor Kevin Matthews Healing warriors’ spirits Associate Editor Some 70 years since having his B-17 shot down over Nuremberg Peggy L. Johnson and spending seven or eight months as a prisoner of war, Thomas Richardson, 96, Art Director decided he wanted to be baptized. Family members came in to the Fresno VA’s Michael L. Adams ’72 long-term care facility in December for a brief ceremony presided over by “The experience of killing others or living with the threat of being killed Contributors lead chaplain Terry Rommereim ’78, M.Div. ’86. Fred Alvarez, Melanie Fishman, Karin Rommereim doesn’t perform as many baptisms as he once did. After Grennan, Judy Lin, Tracy Maple, studying at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, which really is a traumatic thing. (Veterans of war) have spiritual wounds Rachel McGrath, Lorraine Putnam is now part of Cal Lutheran, and earning a Doctor of Ministry at Fuller Photographers Theological Seminary, he was an associate or solo pastor for many Tracy Maple, Brian Stethem ’84 years in Los Angeles and Orange County and later a senior pastor in 1 because of that, and that can’t be healed by medication alone.” Editorial Board Fresno. Although he thought he’d always be a parish pastor, “God had Rachel Ronning ’99 Lindgren other plans for me,” he said. Angela (Moller ’96) Naginey, M.S. ’03 As full-time chaplain since 2010, he has a range of duties with the Michaela (Crawford ’79) Reaves, Ph.D. Department of Veterans Affairs – including a grief support group, a pal- Jean Kelso ’84 Sandlin, M.P.A. ’90, Ed.D. ’12 liative care team and worship services – but spends most of his time now Bruce Stevenson ’80, Ph.D. on “sheer ministry” rather than administrative tasks. He works with veterans Martha Swanson who served in every decade since World War II on issues of chemical dependency, Stacy Swanson ’91 post-traumatic stress disorder, injuries to body and brain, and the moral injuries Colleen Windham-Hughes, Ph.D. suffered by those who face death, fighting, killing and the guilt of survival. Volume 22, Number 3 “The years go by and they’re bottling up a lot of things inside, and every Copyright 2015. Published three story’s different,” he said. “They deal with anxiety and flashbacks and times a year by University Relations triggers and the memories they have of being in war and feelings of for alumni, parents and friends. The distress and difficulty sleeping. Anger issues, those kinds of things.” Rommereim with views expressed in this magazine do “So if we can also look at it in relation to their spirituality,” he Marine veteran not necessarily reflect those of Cal added, “that also can be a source of comfort, relief – to some degree. David Esquivel Lutheran or the magazine staff. That’s just part of the picture.” 2 Correspond with us Last year, the Fresno VA dedicated a new mental health facility, CLU Magazine anticipating need from soldiers back from Afghanistan and Iraq. California Lutheran University Personal experience has helped Rommereim to understand where 60 W. Olsen Road #1800 veterans are coming from. His father was in the military, once sta- Thousand Oaks, CA 91360-2787 805-493-3151 tioned in Japan. Like too many veterans, he has suffered from depression; [email protected] discovering his vocation as a chaplain helped him to overcome it. About 18 CalLutheran.edu/magazine months ago, he suffered a traumatic brain injury when struck by a car. CLU Magazine welcomes letters to He gets to know the patients in the long-term care facility best. They are the the editor. Please include your name, nearest thing he has now to a congregation: “I try to draw them to a God who is phone number, city and state, and just and loving and accepting and grace-filled and a God that understands us note Cal Lutheran graduation years.