Volunteer Program at LCH
Launches Healthcare Careers
Mr. Sloane started volunteering at LCH during his junior year, as part of Palmdale High School's Health Careers Program. He started off in the operating room and Intensive Care Unit (ICU), answering phones and observing staff members. When he became a senior, he started volunteering in the hospital's Emergency Department (ED) under the direction and supervision of Vincent Bennett, MD. Mr. Sloane, then 17, invested four to five hours of volunteer work daily in the ED.
On one particular day, an 18-year-old woman was brought into the ED after a serious car accident. Mr. Sloane watched the ED team resuscitate the young woman and was able to assist team members afterward. The woman was in the ICU for weeks. Mr. Sloane followed the progression of her recovery process.
The young woman eventually left LCH for a rehabilitation hospital, and Mr. Sloane never saw her again. But the experience stayed with him.
"It made me realize how fragile life can be," he said. "This was a person around my age, someone who got her life back due to the quick actions of the ED staff and physicians."
Mr. Sloane, now 22, recently graduated from UC Irvine and plans to attend medical school, with a focus on emergency medicine. He may even train to become a trauma technician while finishing school, with the hope of securing a position at Palmdale Regional Medical Center.
