CALABASAS : Emergency Field Hospital Dedicated

Dr. Arnold Bresky got his first wake-up call on Jan. 17, 1994, when the Northridge earthquake struck before dawn while he was at home in Calabasas. His second wake-up call came later that day, when he reported to West Hills Regional Medical Center to help treat the injured.

Once there, he realized the hospital was not equipped to deal with such a large-scale disaster, he said. The quake had knocked out the hospital’s emergency generator, and medical workers were struggling to keep up with the deluge of quake victims, many whose injuries were not life-threatening.

“There was a nine-hour wait in the emergency room,” said Bresky, a gynecologist. “As a medical doctor, I became acutely aware that the hospital was not working.”

So Bresky hatched a plan to set up field hospitals in Calabasas to treat minor injuries--an idea that became reality Tuesday, exactly one year after the quake, with the dedication of a new emergency medical treatment station at the Calabasas Tennis and Swim Center.

“Within one hour, this would become a mobile hospital,” said Bresky, who served in similar field hospitals during the Vietnam War.

The station is one of two that have been set up in Calabasas. The second station is behind A. E. Wright Middle School.

Jolie Hall Pfahler, one of 30 local doctors who have volunteered to work at the stations during crises, said the stations can serve as liaisons between hospitals and communities that have become isolated by disasters.

For instance, if telephone lines are knocked out, the seriously injured can go to a station and “we can get them in touch with emergency services by ham radio,” Pfahler said.

The stations are equipped with tamper-proof boxes, 8 by 10 feet long and stocked with emergency first-aid equipment, as well as other emergency items such as generators. The stations are set up to deal with injuries such as fractures, burns and bleeding, Bresky said.

The city of Calabasas provided funding for the stations, which cost about $6,000 each, according to city officials.

Bresky, who developed the plan with the volunteer Calabasas Emergency Response Team, said he would eventually like to set up five stations in the city.