Kaiser Permanente midwives deliver hope, help to fire victims

Terri Westerlund and Kristy Culp-Leonard are midwives at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Hospital, and while their work is about delivering babies, the other day, they delivered help and hope to evacuees of the Wine Country firestorms.

“We had a staff meeting on Tuesday, one of the first days of the fires,” says Westerlund, who is the Chief Certified Nurse-Midwife. “I announced that nearly half of the midwife team at Redwood City had some connection to people in the fire area and we had a brief moment of reflection for those families.” Westerlund started thinking about ways to help the evacuated residents. She considered organizing a community service project.

The following day, she heard on a news program that they were sorely in need of supplies at The Family Support Center in Santa Rosa. She called her good friend and colleague, Kristy Culp-Leonard, to see if she would be willing to make a trip to Santa Rosa with her the next day and deliver needed supplies.

Culp-Leonard didn’t hesitate. She was also very concerned about her own family at the time. “My husband’s parents live there and had to evacuate and his aunt barely escaped her home before it burned down”, says Culp-Leonard.

With a commitment to deliver supplies within 24 hours, they quickly went to work to spread the word to colleagues and friends. Westerlund wrote an email to the Redwood City and San Mateo OB/GYN staff, MD’s and administrators encouraging their donations and informing them of what was needed—blankets, baby wipes, diapers and toiletries. Culp-Leonard posted a plea for donations on her Facebook page, spreading the word out to friends and staff from labor and delivery at Redwood City.

Westerlund also went online and discovered a website, sonomafireinfo.org, which listed all the evacuation shelters and the goods that were needed to help the evacuees.

“I saw they needed blankets, towels, new underwear, socks, 200 flashlights and medical supplies--specifically 2 glucometers, eyewash, bandages at the Sonoma Fairgrounds,” Westerlund recalls.

“When I came to the OB/GYN department Thursday morning to collect the donations, there were two rooms full of donated goods!” reports Westerlund. “The incredible generosity of the staff was astounding.”

The team collected dozens of blankets, boxes of diapers, baby wipes, toiletries. There was a used glucometer to help monitor diabetics. San Mateo staff had even more items and cash awaiting them at the Medical Office Building. “Luckily”, reports Westerlund, “I had reserved a U-Haul van!”

Cash donations totaled $1,500. Westerlund and Culp-Leonard took the donations after renting a large van, and shopped for more goods using the cash to deliver to two shelters.

There was an unexpected bonus when she called U-Haul.

“When I told them why I needed the van, they gave it to us for free,” smiles Leonard.

They spent the entire $1, 500 buying towels, blankets, 60 flashlights, underwear, socks, and medical supplies, including a second glucometer.

Their first stop was the Sonoma Family Support Center, a year-round shelter for women and families now caring for evacuees. Officials were overjoyed to receive 60+ blankets, diapers, wipes, and towels, so evacuees could shower away the smoke and dirt.

Then they stopped at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, donating 60 flashlights to Red Cross and National guardsman. Inside the make-shift medical ward, they were thrilled to learn that doctors and nurses from the evacuated Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Hospital were running the ward at the Fairgrounds Veterans Building.

“They hugged us and were so glad to see us. They said “we’re from the same family” as Terri and I were wearing our Kaiser Permanente t-shirts,” laughs Culp-Leonard.

“They were very busy with many people needing care,” said Westerlund. “One of the MD’s remarked he had started the ward by himself with 1 RN and a blood pressure cuff for 80 patients.”

Both Westerlund and Culp-Leonard hope their not-so-small donations will bring some joy to the fire victims, even with the sadness of the victims’ losses.