‘AN INCREDIBLE TALENT’
Doctor remembered fondly as healer, friend and musician
DAlvaro Camacho was remembered by friends and associates as a loving father, dedicated clinician, and ultimately, an inspired and brilliant professional-level musician.
Members of the community and colleagues of Camacho are still in shock over his death Sept. 23, when Camacho apparently took his own life in his private practice on Marshall Road in Imperial. The county coroner’s office has determined the manner of death was self-inflicted, but investigators were releasing no further information, referring all inquiries to the Imperial Police Department. Imperial city officials Friday said they have no new information to disclose.
“We are deeply saddened by the death of Dr. Alvaro Camacho. He was an important member of the Clinicas (De Salud Del Pueblo Inc.) staff,” according to a press statement credited to Clinicas Chief Executive Officer Yvonne Bell and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Afshan Baig. In addition to his private practice, Camacho was last the director of behavioral health for Clinicas.
“Dr. Camacho was a true advocate and champion of Clinicas’ mission of helping others. It is an understatement to say all of us are in a state of shock. He leaves behind two young children, and an immeasurable number of colleagues, friends and patients who benefitted from his work and dedication to serving those in need,” according to the statement.
Former partner at Sun Valley Medical Group, Dr. Bernardo Ng, said, “Myself and those that worked with him are deeply saddened by the loss. … Me, I’m very surprised by this timely and unexpected death.”
Camacho’s death was described as “stunning” by friend and former boss, Michael Horn, who as director of Imperial County Behavioral Health Services, hired Camacho as a psychiatrist and medical director of county Behavioral Health.
The now-retired Horn said, “It’s stunning, because Dr. Camacho is not the kind of guy you would think of as being depressed. Every experience I had with him he was over-the-top exuberant. … Suicides are almost always shocking to us. … In his particular case, I had just never seen him when he wasn’t upbeat, thinking about the future and planning.
“I think for anybody that works in mental health it’s stunning, because we see ourselves as the people protecting everybody else from this kind of tragedy,” Horn continued. “We feel like everybody looks at us to keep them healthy, and sometimes I think we forget to keep ourselves healthy.”
Horn hired Camacho, a native of Colombia, on a foreign doctor visa aimed at helping underserved communities. That’s also where associates would find out what kind of brilliant percussionist Camacho was, holding down the beat with Los Outpatients, a kind of “joke band,” Horn said, formed by employees of county Behavioral Health Services.
“The guy was just incredible (at the congas); he was incredible and could have been a professional musician. He just loved to play,” Horn added.
It’s while playing in Los Outpatients that Camacho would meet Adolfo Estrada, who said Camacho was his best friend. Estrada, a manager at county Behavioral Health, is band leader and lead vocalist of Latin Fuze and ESTRADA coustico, where Camacho played a featured role on congas and timbales.
Estrada said he is devastated by the loss of his friend and bandmate, adding that he has never grieved another person so badly. “Knowing that he helped so many people, [but] he could not help himself breaks my heart,” he said.
“Alvaro loved this county. There is something about it that reminded him of his country, Colombia; the ruralness, the people,” Estrada said. He added Camacho had plenty of chances to work outside Imperial County but that he wanted to stay here to help the underserved population.
“Anybody you talk to [would tell you] he was absolutely dedicated to his work, dedicated to his clients, dedicated to his kids,” Estrada said.
And he was dedicated to his music as well. It was as a musician where Camacho’s light shined, according to Estrada.
“As a percussionist, we had an incredible talent here. … He would give the appropriate rhythm to any genre, be it rock ‘n’ roll, boleros, rancheros, Latin pop; whatever the genre was,” Estrada said. “He added the precise balance, rhythm.”
Camacho performed as a semi-professional musician in Colombia, playing his way through college. At some point, Estrada said, Camacho’s physician father forced him to forgo music and concentrate on his studies.
“Music was his mindfulness; his place of comfort,” Estrada added. “Music provided the peace he could not find in his every day work routine. Rest in peace, my friend.”
Undoubtedly, one of the highlights of Camacho’s local music career was winning a battle of the bar bands contest at Hot Rods and Beer in summer 2013, which earned LatinFuze a slot on stage at the House of Blues in San Diego.
“I want to stress 100 percent that as much as he loved music,” Estrada said, “this county and the people that he served and worked with were his passion.”
Grief counselors were on hand last week at both Clinicas and Imperial County Behavioral Health to provide aid to any co-worker or former co-worker who might need it, according to the Clinicas release and Estrada.
For Camacho’s patients, Clinicas is continuing to care for them. “If you were a patient of his and have any concerns,” the release states, “we want to talk to you. Please contact us a (760) 344-6471, or stop by any of our clinics. We honor his memory by continuing to do our work to improve patients’ lives.”
Clinicas also encouraged those who might need it to call the county Behavioral Health Services’ crisis number at (800) 817-5202 or the 24-hour SURE Helpline at (760) 352-7873.