Fresno State’s Top Dog awards honor alums who have significantly contributed to the school and the communities Fresno State serves. This year’s ceremony distinctly spotlighted the contributions of the Distinguished Alumna honoree, the highest honor given by the Fresno State Alumni Association, Danielle Campagne, MD, in a rather unexpected way.
When Scott Barnes, Outstanding Alumni Award for the Department of Athletics recipient, and Oregon State University athletic director, suddenly experienced a medical emergency shortly before the start of the formal ceremonies on Saturday, April 22, CCFMG physician and UCSF Fresno Interim Chief of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Campagne, and her fellow physicians jumped into action. There to support Dr. Campagne were CCFMG physicians and emergency medicine faculty members at UCSF Fresno Dr. Patil Armenian and Dr. Rawnica Ruegner, along with CRMC emergency medicine nurse Amy Campbell, RN, CEN, all of whom helped perform life-saving measures until additional medical personnel arrived.
After being transported to Saint Agnes Medical Center, The Oregonian reported Barnes spent three days in the ICU before being moved to cardiac rehabilitation. Fortunately, Barnes returned home to Corvallis, Oregon, one week after his medical emergency and is recovering well.
While Drs. Campagne, Armenian, and Ruegner did not expect to be performing life-saving measures on a fellow honoree that evening, Dr. Campagne said in a statement, “My colleagues and I are honored to have been there to provide emergency medical care. This is what we do as emergency medicine physicians.”
Just as Dr. Campagne is no stranger to medical emergencies, she’s also no stranger to the Central Valley. As a Sanger native, Dr. Campagne attended Fresno State for her undergraduate degree. She then returned to UCSF Fresno for her emergency medicine residency after completing medical school at the USC Keck School of Medicine.
For the past 15 years, Dr. Campagne has provided world-class care and education to Valley and medical residents alike. As CCFMG physicians, Drs. Campagne, Armenian, and Ruegner can pursue various medical interests that help contribute to the health and well-being of the diverse communities in the Central Valley. They can care for patients through CCFMG’s partnership with Community Health System in the Community Regional Medical Center’s emergency department. They can teach residents and fellows and conduct cutting-edge research through the partnership with UCSF Fresno, ensuring CCFMG physicians hold faculty appointments from the UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco. At CCFMG and UCSF Fresno, our partnership is dedicated to training the next generation of doctors and conducting cutting-edge research to continue caring for our communities. Supporting world-class physicians like Dr. Danielle Campagne, Dr. Patil Armenian, and Dr. Rawnica Ruegner means expert medical care is minutes, not hours, away.
