Siena student volunteers to help COVID patients

“It felt like I was in an apocalyptic movie.”

Rows of beds, each marked with their own number, lined across the basketball court of Imperial Valley Community College in El Centro, Calif., now a converted field hospital for COVID-19 patients. Some “lucky” patients got a bed with curtains to shut out the outside gym, but supplies were low, and not everybody was afforded the luxury of privacy.

Like so many hospitals in the U.S., patients at Imperial Valley are being kept alive through selfless, medical workers operating with minimal resources. And for two weeks, it was the workplace of Siena College student, Rami Ghanem, ’21.

“We had like 30-40 patients, with doctors and nurses and EMTs and paramedics on site,” said Ghanem. “It was hectic.”

While home for winter break in Orange County, Calif., Ghanem chose to volunteer as a medical aid for CAL-MAT, the California Emergency Medical Service Authority. Ghanem spent two weeks caring for COVID-19 patients while living out of a hotel in El Centro, a town just 15 minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border and one of the hardest hit counties in the state by the pandemic.

It was exhausting work, he said. Ghanem, along with his fellow volunteers, were the first point of contact for COVID-19 patients, taking vitals, setting up heart monitors and tracking their symptoms. Ghanem said there were “so many patients and such little staff,” he estimates working close to 100 hours a week at the hospital.

And now, he can’t wait to go back.

“That was one of my favorite experiences as an EMT actually,” he said. “I actually might go on another deployment.”

Nobody would doubt after this year — or any year — that the work of medical aids, doctors and front-line workers is the work of saints. Fortunately, Siena has one who has made it his mission to help those in need.

Even at a young age, Ghanem thought about becoming a doctor. A son of immigrants — his dad is Palestinian and his mom is Syrian — Ghanem had volunteered throughout high school with the Syrian American Medical Society. While helping with meetings and group conventions, Ghanem was introduced to member leaders who told him about their medical mission trips. Since he was already a certified EMT and spoke Arabic, the group allowed him to accompany a mission trip to a town in Lebanon in 2018.

For a week, Ghanem helped triage patients in the refugee camp and translate Arabic for the physicians. But most of the time, Ghanem helped entertain children in the camp.

“I just spent a lot of time with the kids,” he said. Distracting the children and keeping their morale up was one of Ghanem’s favorite parts. He recalled organizing soccer matches for the children and dividing them up into Team Messi or Team Ronaldo, based on their favorite player. After one game, the kids managed to hoist Ghanem up on their shoulders, carrying him away and shouting, “Rami! Rami!”

It was a morale boost that the kids needed; similar to a time in Ghanem’s own life when he needed support. Five years ago, Ghanem’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. During her treatment, her physician helped cater not only to Ghanem’s mother but the entire family’s pain.

“He was a very personal doctor,” he said, “he would come over and have dinner with us, and not talk about what my mom was going through. He would make jokes and talk to us as friends and take our mind off things. And seeing someone who’s a professional and is treating our mom acting like everything is okay and relaxed, kind of made us all relaxed.”

Ghanem said that “seeing a doctor make an impact on not only the patient but their whole family, and seeing how much influence a doctor can have on people’s lives really inspired me.” It’s the same mentality he took with him on his mission trips, and later, to Siena College. 

Now a junior preparing to graduate a year early, Ghanem was first drawn to Siena because of its Albany Medical College Program, an eight-year partnership where students can earn a bachelor’s from Siena and an M.D. from Albany Medical College.

When applying to schools Ghanem often checked for an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) club on campus — after all, he had his EMT certification and a desire to help out — but when he arrived at Siena he saw the school didn’t offer a club. So, he started his own.

“Right when I got into Siena I started talking to a lot of administrators there about starting an EMS club, and by the end of freshman year, it officially became a club,” he said.

The club’s initial plans were to start staffing the sports events at Siena this year until COVID-19 struck. But that didn’t stop EMS members who then volunteered to screen incoming visitors to campus. The club took temperatures and asked the typical screening questions for visitors, such as potential students touring the school and in-coming students and families during the fall 2020 move-in process.

“It was great to see we were actually making an impact in helping the school out,” Ghanem said. “We were wearing our uniforms too, and everyone who was volunteering loved it … It was definitely amazing to be somewhat of a help to Siena.”

The club also offers a partnership with the Town of Colonie EMS, where the town will provide a free class to EMS student members under the condition that they volunteer with the town. “A lot of students now are getting EMT certified and able to get those clinical hours and get that experience,” Ghanem said. “My goal was for everyone at Siena who was planning to go into nursing or any type or medical profession, to have those clinical hours and that experience.”

After graduation, Ghanem plans to pursue an MBA at Clarkson University before starting the remainder of his program with Albany Medical College. After that, he’s excited to continue his missions to help those in need, wherever that may be.

“Ever since that mission, I felt very focused on continuing that type of work in the future,” he said. “Whether it be domestically with these COVID deployments or abroad.”