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Alumni

Postcard from The Hood

Paula J. Pearlman, M.D. ’81, has been an emergency-medicine physician at Kaiser West Los Angeles Medical Center for nearly 30 years. She has discovered a way to help save lives with a laser.

Paula J. Pearlman, M.D.- MedMag-S2012I live and work in Los Angeles. Every time I step into the Emergency Department of my hospital, I am exposed to the vast and fantastic cultural and ethnic diversity in this city. I meet and intimately interact with people of every color and from every socioeconomic stratum. We are different, yet we are the same. It's a gift to know and embrace this truth.

Compelled to give something back to this great city, I started about eight years ago volunteering to do tattoo removal at Homeboy Industries. The organization was founded by Father Gregory Boyle and is recognized as the largest gang-intervention and re-entry-into-society program in the county. "Nothing stops a bullet like a job" and "Jobs not jail" are its mottos.

The tattoo-removal program is aimed at eradicating the inked obstacles that stand in the way of employment for ex-gang members, ex-prisoners, young kids from detention camps who arrive in shackles and anyone who wants to make a change to improve his or her life and self-esteem. I happily return to my "homies" several times a month to "blast away the past." The tattoo removal is done by laser; it is free, but it's a painful, intense process. Taking off the ink hurts much more than putting it on. After waiting on a list for up to two years, my patients begin treatments, returning every six-to-eight weeks for five-to-10 sessions, until all the ink is obliterated. The stories I hear are sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes uplifting. I've learned so much. And every single person says "Thank you."

For me, it is immensely gratifying. I am able to contribute to the shot at redemption that my fellow Angelinos seek, to help those who grew up under the same L.A. sky as I did but who lived lives that seem light years away from my childhood in Westwood. These young men and women bravely walk through the doors of Homeboy Industries toward a better life by literally erasing some of their past.

For more information about Homeboy Industries or to volunteer in the laser tattoo-removal program, visit: http://homeboy-industries.org

 

 


 


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Winter/Spring 2012

Winter/Spring 2012
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IN THIS ISSUE
  • The Invisible Backbone
  • Detecting Pancreatic Cancer in Saliva
  • Visualizing the Web of Depression
  • The Rhythm of Learning
  • UCLA in the Community
  • Fish Oil Lowers Prostate Risk
  • Older May Not Be Better
  • Heartfelt Award
  • Turning Stem Cells into Cancer-Killing Warriors
  • Tracking Teen Suicide
  • The Wakeful Brain
  • David T. Feinberg, M.D., M.B.A
  • Five-Star Care
  • A New Face for an Old Friend
  • Therapeutic Aesthetic
  • Culture of Caring
  • The Music of Medicine
  • Awards/Honors
  • Grants
  • Alumni Celebrate Life of Former Dean of Students
  • One-on-One: Jamie D. Feusner, M.D. ’99
  • Postcard from The Hood
  • MAA 2012 Reunion Weekend
  • MAA on the Road
  • Honoring the Visionaries in Our Community
  • Chairs of Distinction
  • Gifts
  • In Memoriam
  • Gift from the Heart
  • Events
  • A Vision Realized
  • The Healing Medicine of a Wet Nose
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