Gigi J. Simmons, MD
FAMILY MEDICINE CHIEF RESIDENT TOILS ON THE PANDEMIC FRONTLINE: IT’ S HER CALLING
Incoming Family Medicine Chief Resident Dr. Gigi Simmons honed her knack for being a first responder during her medical training at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba. Cuban medical school training is combined with an emphasis on public health.“ I was there during two epidemics – a dengue fever outbreak and the Ebola crisis that threatened the world,” she noted. Classes were cancelled while she and her colleagues were assigned to go door to door daily to ask if anyone in the household displayed symptoms.
Originally from Bollingbrook, Ill, officially classified as a village suburb of Chicago, she acquired her medical career interest as a high school sophomore. She spent her undergraduate years at Xavier University in New Orleans, the HBCU with a reputation for sending the largest number of students to medical school. She attended the Cuban medical school on full scholarship funded by Pastors for Peace in New York City.
Her decision to opt for CDU’ s Family Medicine residency program as a member of the first class was partly based on her previous experience.“ I felt like I had already trained for family medicine in Cuba because it is a great basis for our training here,” she added. Cuba has local neighborhood family medical clinics, the Consultorios Mèdicos, that are pervasive throughout the Western Hemisphere including in the US.“ You can do everything, you can treat everybody. That’ s what I wanted to be – a jack of all trades.”
CDU’ s emphasis on social justice and health disparities was important to her.“ I wanted to serve the community of black and brown people. I have a large Latino client base and I wanted to give them the Spanish-speaking physician that they deserve. It’ s hard when you don’ t speak the language and you’ re trying to get your point across, and the person that you’ re speaking to doesn’ t understand where you’ re coming from,” she observed.
Why volunteer for COVID-19 duty?“ This is what I’ ve been taught to do, and I’ m used to being on the frontlines.” At the beginning of the pandemic she worked in the emergency department at Harbor / UCLA Hospital. She was able to see how the COVID-19 rapid response team responded to the threat.“ People were coming in, many with shortness of breath. I witnessed intubations right there in the emergency room. It was very scary. When we first began, we didn’ t know how it was spreading. We realized that we can only do what we can do to protect ourselves and our patients.”
At the MLK Outpatient Clinic, she became involved with the Telehealth services team as a support to the pandemic defense effort. Her previous experience has proven beneficial in the role of consulting with patients over the telephone and internet.“ I’ ve had multiple patients who didn’ t want to come to the emergency room even though they needed to, because of the COVID.
“ I had to convince a patient to come in and get his problem checked out. He said,‘ I know if. If go I might get the COVID. I’ d rather just stay here’. And he also takes care of his sister, who’ s also elderly as well.”
Dr. Simmons convinced the client to come in by telling him that if he passed away, no one will know how to take care of his sister and the best option was to come in, take care of himself, then go back and take care of her.
Her most direct frontline experience has been in the labor and delivery section of California Hospital.“ We weren’ t sure how COVID is spread during labor and delivery. You have to wear all of your PPE which includes the N95 mask, a mask on top of your N95 mask, and a face shield during all of your deliveries; even when you’ re checking on a patient. I had a patient who spiked a fever while in labor. And usually, when you spike a fever during labor, you call it something else. Some kind of infection is going on from the labor, so we would treat them with antibiotics.
“ But at this time, the question is, do they have COVID? Should they be tested? If the answer is yes, then we do the swab, but it takes a couple of days to get the results back. A couple of our patients tested positive. We were told to monitor our own health, but continue to come to work.”
CDU COLLEGE OF MEDICINE | PG. 07