Their clinic was destroyed by the Eaton fire. They still want to help

Despite the destruction of the AltaMed clinic in Pasadena during the Eaton fire, staff and physicians continue working to help the affected community. 

The team is serving people at the Red Cross shelter in the Pasadena Convention Center.

Dr. David Noya, the Pasadena AltaMed site medical director, said he was at the clinic when the fire started on January 7. He was working on some last-minute assignments around 6:25 pm when another staff member told him the bad news. 

“I went to the back and saw the fire right in the mountains behind our clinic, and I felt the warmth as soon as I opened the door, so we immediately evacuated,” he said. 

At around 8:30 p.m., the news images showed the nursing home next door being evacuated. A little later, there was footage of the clinic in flames. 

Noya said the loss of the clinic is very personal because this has been his home away from home. While watching the news he realized the magnitude of the devastation had left patients severely affected. AltaMed confirmed about 15 staff members lost their homes to the fire.  

The clinic, located at 2661 East Washington Boulevard in Pasadena, had about 20 staff members and served about 4,000 patients. All of them have been reassigned to other nearby clinics. Noya estimates about 1,200 patients of the AltaMed clinic were affected by the fires. 

Making patients feel safe

For over a week, the AltaMed staff has been collaborating with the Red Cross in the Pasadena Convention Center. Noya said the City of Pasadena contacted them asking for their services. Once at the convention center, the need was big but the chaos was bigger because there was no specific plan. Once they set a plan in action they began providing services including basic medical care and helping the most critical patients find a better location to receive the services they needed. 

The Red Cross initially lodged about 1,500 patients at the convention center, but now they have about 500. 

Noya said he has been able to identify some of his patients who are staying at the shelter. Now they feel safer because they have their primary provider on site. 

“For them, it has been reassuring to know that I’m still around and I’m going to be serving the same community,” he said. “For me, the most touching thing was when I had one of my patients come and give me a big bear hug and told me, ‘I’m glad you are OK.’ She was worried about me.”

The reassurances he provides is not only for his patients but also for his staff. This includes Samantha Smith, AltaMed’s front office supervisor, who said she loved her job so much that she didn’t mind commuting from Compton to Pasadena.

“For me, it was the prettiest because we had all the landscaping and overall it felt peace. Teams used to go walking during their break time, the community was great,” she said. 

She said for now, other than helping at the Red Cross shelter to relocate the patients. She said sometimes it has been difficult because certain patients refuse to talk to anyone else other than their primary providers. 

Noya said he had met with AltaMed’s CEO Castulo de la Rocha and had decided that they would rebuild the clinic, bigger and better.