Homefront Helps Reserve Doc Answer Call
News and Media - Mercury - August 2002 Mercury

Story and photo by Sgt. 1st Class Betty Thompson
Public Affairs Office, Europe Regional Medical Command
  Photo of Col. Claudia McAllaster checking Brittney Porter's ears
  Army Reservist Col. Claudia McAllaster checks the ears of Brittney Porter while deployed at the Kitzingen Army Health Clinic.

When one Army Reserve physician received the call to deploy with her unit, she knew from her Desert Storm experience that her departure would impact more than 3,000 people. Friends and neighbors in Leavenworth, Kan., rallied, ensuring business and personal matters were handled while Col. Claudia McAllaster supported military medical operations in Europe.

McAllaster filled in this spring for a physician at the Army Health Clinic in Kitzingen, Germany. The rest of her unit, the 4204th U.S. Army Hospital, worked at Wuerzburg Army Hospital while the 67th Combat Support Hospital was in Kosovo.

"I have certainly felt needed here. It was worthwhile coming," McAllaster said.

McAllaster added that while it was a grand adventure, it increased the workloads of her colleagues at home. McAllaster has been a pediatrician for the Leavenworth community for about 20 years.

"I'm the only doctor in my practice so I had about 3,000 children to make arrangements for," she said. "One of the first things I did was go to the other pediatricians in town and ask if they would be willing to provide medical care for my patients."

"We lost patients and we work later hours," said Dr. Debra Heidgen, one of two pediatricians who agreed to help McAllaster.

Like Heidgen, McAllaster expects to lose patients to other pediatricians. When she returned from Desert Storm, only one-third of her patients returned.

"It took a good two years to rebuild," she recalls.

"The hospital that owns my medical building has notified me that they will not charge me rent for the three months that I'm gone. That was an unexpected blessing," she said.

While deployed, one of her employees, Jacquelyn Skaggs, managed McAllaster's practice and answered any patient questions and concerns. Her parents, Donna and Wendale McAllaster, kept things in order and would act on her behalf if needed. Her neighbors took care of her home and picked up her mail.

From the August 2002 Mercury, an Army Medical Department publication.
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