Malibu’s emergency preparedness coordinator said he would be happy to partner with a local doctor’s new emergency-response team. But the doctor and the city are at odds over the necessity of another response team.
By Susan Reines/Special to The Malibu Times
A Malibu doctor is lobbying the city to endorse the emergency response program he created to address what he sees as deficiencies in the city’s disaster preparedness, but the city has been slow to react to what it says is another incarnation of a response team it already has.
Dr. Victor Dorodny says he founded the Malibu Medical Reserve Corps, or MMRC, because Malibu has failed to organize teams of doctors and nurses that could respond effectively to emergencies and has not purchased enough defibrillators, the portable devices that can resuscitate heart attack victims.
“I saw a need. I saw that the city is not doing it. Nobody’s doing it, so I took it upon myself,” said Dorodny, a semi-retired surgeon now doing consulting. Dorodny and his wife, a real estate agent, moved to Malibu from Santa Monica last year.
The city says it is prepared for an emergency.
“The city’s program has successfully managed seven federally declared disasters since the city’s incorporation in 1991,” City Manager Katie Lichtig said. Those disasters included fires and landslides.
Malibu’s full-time emergency preparedness coordinator, Brad Davis, said the city met with doctors and nurses in 2002 and already has a network of medical professionals prepared to react to disaster.
“We did this two years ago,” Davis said. “Having said that, it [the city’s emergency preparedness] is a lot to manage, so I’m always happy when a volunteer comes along.”
Davis also runs a Community Emergency Response Team program that teaches residents how to handle emergencies. More than 100 Malibu residents are CERT trained, and another training cycle begins in October.
But Dorodny says CERT and informal doctor/nurse teams are not enough-Malibu needs ongoing training for fully equipped teams of medical professionals. Dorodny also wants to install public defibrillator stations, which he said could save some people who have sudden heart attacks and can’t get to a hospital.
City Council Member Ken Kearsley discussed the MMRC with Dorodny last spring, during Kearsley’s re-election campaign, but a meeting between Dorodny and the council has not materialized yet.
Kearsley said he would still “like to see the plan,” but says it hasn’t happened yet because the council “just got busy. We take one thing at a time. We’re trying to get the [Santa Monica College partnership] bond issue going.”
The state and federal governments this summer approved the MMRC, making it a branch of the state and federal Medical Reserve Corps programs.
There are other Medical Reserve Corps in Los Angeles, but Dorodny said he convinced the federal and state governments that Malibu needed its own because it has no emergency room and its canyons could isolate Malibuites for extended periods during disasters.
However, the state and federal approvals do not get the MMRC any government funding.
MMRC has virtually no funding, facilities or equipment at this time, Dorodny said. A few volunteers are answering the toll-free hotline. The San Diego communications firm IR Source has volunteered to manage MMRC’s technology and communications needs.
Dorodny said some doctors and nurses had already joined MMRC, and he has plans to meet with about 25 more. Many of those only work in Malibu but do not live here, though, so he still needs resident medical professionals as well as volunteers like grief counselors and residents with four-wheel-drive vehicles. Kay Fransen of the Malibu Veterinary Clinic has agreed to open her facility for emergency use.
Dorodny said he is not looking for city money. He said he plans to buy defibrillators, which cost between $1,300 and $1,500 apiece, and pay for training and community education programs with grants from foundations and corporations, and he said he wants city endorsement because he feels the “clout” would help him win grants.
But Dorodny said he would need city help to operate a full system of public defibrillators, although he will push ahead on a smaller scale even without the city.
Lichtig said she does not know of any plans to put a discussion of MMRC on the City Council agenda.
Part of the city’s hesitancy seems to stem from the suddenness with which Dorodny appeared. Lichtig said she first heard about MMRC a few months ago, after Dorodny had already submitted applications for state and federal approval. The city, however, issued a press release Monday, welcoming the MMRC, and announcing that it has become an official member of the USA Freedom Corps. The Corps is a volunteer organization created by President Bush.
Dorodny is from Ukraine and received his medical degree from N.I. Pirogov Medical Institute in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1975. He did his residency at the USC-Los Angeles County Medical Center.
After his residency, Dorodny worked as an emergency-room surgeon, then moved into the pharmaceutical industry, serving as vice president for a division of ICN Pharmaceuticals. He later turned his focus to public health, founding the nonprofit Naturopathic Evidence-Based Wellness Institute (NEW). He is now partially retired but does some work with NEW and other consulting.