Family and colleagues ask Health Commission to help bring injured SF resident home from the Philippines

During public comment, Dr. Leigh Kimberg and relatives of Brandon Lee described his critical injuries following an assassination attempt in the Philippines and asked the department and commission to help coordinate transfer to Zuckerberg San Francisco General and to find financial resources for medical evacuation and care.

Dr. Leigh Kimberg, a primary care provider at San Francisco General and the department's interpersonal-violence-prevention coordinator, said Brandon Lee is a U.S. citizen who survived multiple gunshot wounds on Aug. 6, was paralyzed from the chest down, and was expected to be medically evacuable within a couple of weeks. She asked the department to coordinate his transfer, help identify funds for evacuation, support his mother (a long-time Department of Public Health employee), and issue a statement condemning violence against human-rights activists.

Raquel Redondis, who traveled to the Philippines with Supervisor Matt Haney and a small delegation to visit Lee, reported that his condition had fluctuated: she described improvement (regaining upper-body movement and breathing on his own at one point) followed by pneumonia and return to a respirator, and said medical evacuation planning was under way with an estimated cost of roughly $50,000 cited in public comment.

Commissioner Guillermo asked staff to see what support could be provided to facilitate transfer to ZSFG, requested a statement of support on behalf of the commission, and the secretary was asked to draft a document to honor the request. The department agreed to look into options and the commission indicated it would consider authoring a statement of support.