Treasured cardiologist perishes at age 80
Dr. Jose Rocamora, who lived to work because his work gave him life and practiced medicine up until he himself had to focus on his own care, passed away May 2.
He was an advocate for all who insisted on providing medical care regardless of whether a patient had the ability to pay.
He sometimes went to the border to pick up patients and bring them to his office and after rendering services, returned them to the border. Some could not afford his fee so they would pay him in livestock, fresh produce or even knitted handicrafts, recalled Giselle Rocamora, his daughter.
“His life was work,” said Giselle. “His nickname was Rocky, because he always stood up and fought for his patients, life and medicine.”
He was really a kind guy noted Dr. Mohamed Suliman, a gastroenterology physician who practices in El Centro.
“He was a cardiologist but had a heart of gold,” remarked Suliman. “If he had one fault, he could never say no.”
Rocamora graduated from the Buenos Aires Medical School in Argentina in 1962, worked in the department of cardiology at Yale New Haven Hospital and at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation cardio-pulmonary division in La Jolla.
“He began the hospice movement in the Valley in the 1980s,” said Giselle. “He was the medical director of Imperial Valley Home Health, a hospice in El Centro. He assisted Mary Ellen Warner in starting an ambulance service in the 1970s. He would go out on ambulance calls on the way to the hospital.”
During the 1980s and 1990s he was chief of staff, first at the Calexico Hospital, then El Centro Regional Medical Center and then Pioneers Medical Healthcare District ... he instrumental in refurbishing the intensive care units at all those facilities. Yet this was a man with the soul of an artist. He was an avid pianist, enjoyed the tango of singer/composer Carlos Gardel, loved the poetry of Pablo Neruda and Luis Borges and he loved to cook paella and Argentine asado (barbecue).
Still, his life was most utterly in the medical arena. He was a diplomat in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease.
“He was a very funny man, my dad was a clown and he loved to laugh,” recalled Giselle. “Everything he did was in grandeur because he always wanted the best for everybody.”
Martin Rocamora, Giselle’s brother and a principal sales representative of LivaNova, a medical device manufacturer, recalled their father helped start the El Centro and Brawley convalescent hospitals.
“He was well respected among his peers ... a great doctor and even better dad,” said Martin.
One of those colleagues Rocamora made a big impression upon was Dr. George Fareed who practices family medicine at PMHD, who remembers Rocamora was one of the main reasons he left Los Angeles 27 years ago and tried to make a difference in this underserved area.
“He graciously took me into his office in Brawley to allow me to be successful,” said Fareed. “He taught me about the process of delivering care and providing proper monitoring of patients.”