Dr. Mauricio Heilbron, Jr.
A Long Beach ER doc writes prose that chills the blood and should move politicians
Precocious, serious-minded and, at 11, the “man of the house” to his mom and two sisters, Jose Luis Garcia Bailey flashed through public notice for a few days in March after being gunned down on a Long Beach street corner.
Witnesses reported that two alleged gang members fired into a crowd, with a stray bullet ripping through the boy’s upper body. He stopped breathing at the scene and was taken to St. Mary Medical Center, where all of Dr. Maurcio Heilbron, Jr.’s professional valor couldn’t patch the boy’s heart. Readers of the Long Beach Press-Telegram were handed a harrowing account of the effects of gang warfare by the surgeon. As the boy is dying, the doctor brings the family in: “His mother looks at me. My hands are still in the boy’s chest, trying to do something, anything. In her eyes, I see a soul that I am about to crush with a little nod of my head. I do so.”
In true writerly fashion, Dr. Heilbron places his faith in the power of a good story simply told and the hope words really do precede action.
—Ron Garmon
CityBeat: One is struck by the clarity and force of your writing. Who do you read?
Dr. Heilbron: I’m a book-o-holic. [Laughs.] I have about 2,500 first editions in hardcovers. I love the classics, like the juiciest of Dickens. And popular stuff like Stephen King and the hardboiled detective school. History, but not textbook-y history, something vivid done with flair and drama and imagination. Do you know James Agee?
Oh, yes.
I’m starting to read his movie criticism and I’m astonished at how quick and amazing he is. Brilliant!
How often are you moved to write about your experiences?
More often than not. It just doesn’t always get printed. It’s my catharsis, my therapy. I’ve probably had a dozen things published in the Press-Telegram and other places. Do you know Marlo Thomas?
Yes.
She wrote a book called The Right Words at the Right Time. In Volume II, I wrote a chapter on adoption.
Well, we were knocked out by your prose at CityBeat, I can tell you.
Well, you’re high, but thank you.
Indubitably, but well-done anyway.
This one felt like if I didn’t write about it, I’d just explode.
Do you ever try to get politicians to come to the ER and see what you do every day?
I would love that! I got into a little bit of trouble because of that a while ago. A year after September 11, I was asked to speak in front of the L.A. Board of Supervisors downtown. They were going to close some trauma centers and I thought I was just going into someone’s office and all of a sudden I show up at a room number that’s some big auditorium. I had nothing prepared and was told I was on the panel. I’m with the president of one thing and the president of something else and they’re giving these flowery speeches. I just went off. I reminded them of what day it was and asked, “How many trauma centers do you think they’ve closed in New York? None. Almost no one lived through what happened, but the ones who did, where were they treated? Trauma centers, under trauma protocol.” I had these things in my mind and was so angry! And I said, “We started with 25 trauma centers for a population of 8 million. Now we have 13 for 10 million and you want to close two?” All the cameras suddenly went whir! click! focusing in. “What’s gonna happen,” I said, “is that one of you rich folks up in Palos Verdes, your daughter is gonna get into a car accident and there’ll be no place to take her and then there’ll be a problem.”
Yours is a rewarding career all by itself, with many absorbing problems and challenges ... .
Absolutely. It’s the best.
... keeping the mind occupied and wits going ... .
Very much so. I had 11 days off last year.
So you have every inducement to keep your nose clear of anything political. Yet you’re drawn into it. Why?
I think anyone who wants to be part of their community has to be political. The good part of political. I just read a short biography of George Washington, the man who invented the presidency and his ideas are still good for something.
You’ve tried to get the pols to come see what you do.
How would I get them to? What avenues would I have? I will tell you that at board meetings for the hospital and community meetings, there are politicians who are acutely aware of what’s going on here. The fact they don’t wanna come down and have a look, well, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they have a lot on their plate. But they know where we are. I’d welcome them with open arms and never wag my finger and berate them for being here. But, if you’re gonna talk about it, maybe you should come hang out here.
You mentioned the war in your story. Is there any connection in your mind between gang violence here and the occupation there? Apart from the obvious kinship as obscenity.
Yes. I think it’s ignorant for anyone to look at one and not the other. I don’t know if people refuse to see the connection out of political correctness or they’ve just given up. You could take photos of a lot of city street corners in L.A., run them in the paper and defy people to tell the difference between here and Iraq. Wrecked structures, people running in the streets, gunfire, I guarantee you could find such places here, New York City, Chicago, on the outskirts of Dallas. It just seems ludicrous that we have a culture that prides itself on fear, murder, crime and instilling dread and panic in a population in order to maintain superiority, which is exactly what terrorists do. We’re even afraid to call them “gangbangers” when we analyze them. We have to call them “wayward youth.” I’m fixing these people and they spit on me and I don’t mean metaphorically. Legally, I have to fix them and they know that. Being shot makes them feel invulnerable, never mind the fact I worked my ass off for three days trying to bring you back. They don’t care. The ones who flew planes into buildings on 9/11 didn’t care either.
A sense of humanity seems rather too rare these days to risk projection on a distant enemy.
Both my parents are from Colombia.
I was born here and speak English as a second language. America was the pedestal everyone looked up to. Now people laugh at us.
What of young Bailey?
I think people are gonna forget about this kid. We forget about things so fast. People don’t remember individual school shootings after a while. There’s been three since Virginia Tech. We’ve become numb out of necessity. If we weren’t we wouldn’t be able to live with ourselves. If he’d been 25 and not 11, it wouldn’t have made the paper. Writing about it was initially therapeutic or selfish or whatever you want to say. If this keeps it on the forefront of people’s thoughts a little longer, maybe someone who can actually do something will get wind of it.
Published: 04/02/2008
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