Borrego Sun - Since 1949

My story is of the horrors of the one and only time we used the clinic in Borrego.

We’ve had a vacation home here for over 30 years and since retiring in 2007, we now call Borrego Springs home. Having said that, at the time, we still wanted to use our doctors of many years over the hill where we had good longstanding relationships. We never availed ourselves of their services until we had an emergency.

My husband was stung between the eyes by a bee and went into anaphylactic shock. He was in full blown anaphylactic shock, sweating profusely, hyperventilating and going blind. It was frightening! I raced him up to the clinic, dropped him off in front, and then parked.

When I entered the clinic I was told that he was inside being treated. I sat down with the only two people in the waiting room who happened to be from Julian and were there to check out the clinic and there services for future use. Maybe 10 – 15 minutes go by and I ask if I can go in and see my husband. He was sitting up on a bed-like chair and was still hyperventilating. I asked what was going on since no others were in the room. He said he’d never seen anything like it. They took him back and started scrambling around for an epi-pen. Finally the doctor, she was a female, came up with the pen, read the directions, took off the plastic wrap, and proceeded to stab him in the thigh. He couldn’t believe it, but the doctor had inadvertently had the pen upside down and ended up stabbing herself all the way through her thumb and nail. Hadn’t she just read the directions I ask and he said yes.

What?

He said they then started the scrambling again, opening and shutting drawers and cabinets after realizing that they had used their last epi-pen!

What?

They finally came up with a bottle of epinephrine and the nurse gave him an injection, while the other nurse was back attending to the doctor.

What?

When the doctor appeared, she asked how my husband was doing and I said better, but “more to the point” how do you feel since I can’t imagine what it is like to get a shot of adrenaline when you don’t need one.

What?

The last straw was when I went back out to the waiting room and the couple from Julian asked me if my husband was Jack? Why I asked and they said that the woman at the counter where you check in had been calling and looking for my husband.

What?

Didn’t they know that he was already in the back being treated? How could they not? Besides the couple from Julian, we were it!

We couldn’t believe what just happened. We know it was accidental and not intentional, but left us questioning their professionalism.

Since then, we have never been back, thanks to having no need, because we would rather drive two hours then be seen by someone at the clinic!

Now that they’ve terminated the one consistent thing they had going for them, meaning the confusing termination of Jan Jones and Dr. Pam McEvoy and the community’s allegiance to them. They have never understood Borrego and the dynamics of our community, how we can all unite if we feel that we have been wronged by a trusted institution especially when it concerns our well-being and our mental health. Someone or something has got to give here because all Borregan’s deserve full-time, consistent, complete medical care, up to and including, urgent care, mental health, radiology, a laboratory, medical field specialists and so on. We need the security of knowing that they are there to help and heal us.

What’s next for BCHF? I sincerely hope they get their heads screwed on straight!

Bunnie Hamilton

– Borrego Springs, California