Brandon Ball – Urban Health Fellow

Student Reflection, 7/21/14

“On Monday, I went to UCLA and go to meet and talk to EMT’s and also look around their station and learn things about their career. I got to see them do a drill with each other. In their drill a man got hit by a car and fell off of his bike.  The first thing I noticed was they checked to see if he could have a spinal injury. She asked him questions to make sure he was conscious and nothing was wrong with his brain. He had a couple of bruises but they were nothing too serious. But to make sure that he didn’t break something, especially his spine, they made sure to keep his body in a flat position. To get him into the ambulance, they got a board to place him on so his body would stay still.”

– Brandon Ball

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The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, in a 2009 report stated, the death rate for African Americans was higher than Whites for heart diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and homicide.

In response to the health crises impacting communities of color, SJLI with funding from The California Wellness Foundation has developed a five-week, hands-on internship and training fellowship. A Fellow wrote the preceding journal entry during his Urban Health Fellowship training.