Carol C. Hamilton, Psy. D, Dr Carol Hamilton

PEDIATRIC PRACTICE IN NUESTRA CIUDAD DE LA REINA DE LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
Kaiser Permanente / Pediatric Oncology and General Pediatrics (Hollywood)

     Because I spoke Spanish, many families in the Los Angeles area who spoke Spanish chose me as their primary care provider. As I began to see children who had witnessed the effects of the brutal civil war in El Salvador, I noticed that these children often had symptoms that were severe and distressing, but expensive medical tests yielded no diagnosis. It seemed that as a Pediatric Department we were failing to diagnose or alleviate the obvious suffering of these children. At that time, prior to the knowledge we currently have about trauma, these children’s symptoms were thought to be imaginary. At Kaiser Permanente I was allowed to create a special clinic to follow these children and their families. By having more time to talk with these children and their families, I learned that what we were seeing as a medical community were children who were showing symptoms of extreme stress, now generally referred to as Acute Stress Disorder or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

      Since those early days, the field of Trauma Psychology has evolved dramatically, and hopefully we are now more able to recognize and treat both the physical and mental manifestations of extreme stress in children and adults. My early work with healthy and traumatized children has helped me over these many years to have a balanced view of children and to better understand adults who were traumatized as children and adolescents.

      In the 1970’s and 1980’s, medical communities rediscovered the terrible facts of child physical and sexual abuse. Pioneers such as Henry Silver, M.D, and Henry Kemp, M.D., Richard Krugman, M.D., and many others began to describe injuries to children related to physical and sexual abuse. At Kaiser Permanente I volunteered to serve on the very first S.C.A.N. (Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect) Team, which was advised by Roland Summit, M.D

     My other major duties aside from general pediatrics included working half time with children who had cancer. Their experiences and courage in facing cancer, and sometimes death taught me a lot about truthfulness, living life to its fullest, and families under stress. I have these children and their families to thank for my love of life and appreciation of how precious our time on Earth is.