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In This Issue:
Each summer, BWH welcomes a distinguished and diverse group of new residents to its training programs. This year, in a three-part series, BWH Bulletin spotlights a group of residents with unique experiences, backgrounds and talents.
Romeo Galang, MD, MPH, was just beginning his public health studies at Tulane University in 2005 when disaster struck.
Galang, who was born and raised in New Orleans, evacuated the city with his family two days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. When he and his family returned to their home, they found that it had been destroyed by floodwaters.
“When I came back for the spring semester, I lived on a boat parked in the Mississippi River with other health care workers, military personnel and students,” he said. “I began documenting the responses of women participating in a study examining the effects of Hurricane Katrina on pregnancy outcomes.”
Each interview lasted over an hour and covered information about their exposures and evacuation history, burdens and rebuilding efforts, and several measures of physical and mental health.
“I was changed as a result of these encounters,” Galang said. “As a student with no real medical background, I felt powerless to help with the problems these women were experiencing. That solidified my decision to become a physician.”
Galang, who is now in the first year of his obstetrics and gynecology residency at BWH, said it wasn’t an easy decision to leave his home again to go to medical school. But the advice he got from friends and family was consistent.
“I heard the message that if I truly cared about New Orleans, I should find the place that enables me to be the strongest person I can be. And then, I can come back home and make a difference,” he said. “I knew I wanted to be somewhere that I would be trained to work with women who had high risk, complicated pregnancies, and the Brigham is such a strong hospital. I knew I would get the best exposure here.”