News Briefs

Trauma Surgeon Recounts His Experience in Gaza

RENO

American general, trauma, and critical care surgeon, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, joined CODEPINK, a peace and social justice organization, on Aug. 13 to discuss the impact of Israeli forces on healthcare in Gaza. Without international journalists present, doctors, nurses, and aid workers have become the world’s point of information in the Gaza strip. 

As a humanitarian surgeon, Palestine is only one of many conflict-torn places Sidhwa has treated patients. He has also volunteered in Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and more. On his first mission to Gaza, he treated a 9-year-old girl who was suffering from sepsis and unknown injuries from a bomb. 

Once he was able to inspect her injuries and peel back the bandages on her abdomen, he said maggots spilled out of her side, which had been stapled shut because the surgeon who should have been on duty had been killed. Then, because there were too many patients for the doctors to handle, the girl had been left for days on end without any treatment. The same girl, Sidhwa said, somehow still had her leg attached. Treating her to the extent of his capability took 30 to 40 hours of surgery. 

Sidhwa continued on, saying that she is now in Egypt and needs to have her leg amputated. Many other children haven’t made it. The ones who have been maimed — and he said Gaza easily has the most child amputees out of anywhere in the world — can’t be taken care of and won’t survive. Sidhwa spoke of two children sharing a wheelchair and being allowed to leave Gaza accompanied by their aunt, whose own 6-month-old baby was denied the same right by Israel.

Sidhwa’s most recent time volunteering in Gaza was this April, and he is slated to go back again this year despite noting that more aid workers have been killed in Gaza than anywhere else in the world. Having also volunteered in Ukraine during its ongoing conflict with Russia, Sidhwa said the rate of healthcare workers being killed in Gaza is easily 110 times the rate in Ukraine. He said that every person in charge of every hospital in Gaza has either been arrested or killed. 

Sidhwa shared an insurmountable level of cruelty faced by Gazans. He described the atrocities inflicted on patients, many of whom will never recover mentally or physically; the rampant starvation and thirst and aid organization’s inability to assure food for volunteers; children shot in the head; children bleeding out on hospital floors crowded with hundreds of other people; hospitals functioning well-beyond capacity; and how, plainly, no amount of medical care can fix Gaza.

He said that Americans and the world are nowhere near doing everything they can.

~ MR

Death at Boca Reservoir

NEVADA COUNTY

On Aug. 12, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office responded to a death at Boca Reservoir. It was reported that a body was pulled out of the water. 

The Sheriff’s Office is conducting an investigation, and has no further information on the deceased or the cause of death has been released. The reservoir, located north of Lake Tahoe, feeds into the Truckee River.

~ MR

Nevada County’s Newest Historical Landmark 1870s Mount Lola Geodetic Survey Site

NEVADA CITY

The Nevada County Historical Landmarks Commission announced that the site and remains of the 1870s Mount Lola Geodetic Survey was designated on Aug. 12 as Nevada County Historical Landmark NEV 25-07 by the County Board of Supervisors at its Truckee meeting.

The landmark will commemorate work done in the 1870s by Prof. George Davidson and his team from the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. They developed quadrilateral base line measurements, which served as the primary triangulation method for surveying and mapping the West Coast of the United States until the advent of GPS satellite navigation in the 1980s. Davidson worked from atop Mount Lola, where evidence of his work remains.

Mount Lola – named for the legendary Lola Montez, who lived in Nevada County in the 1850s – is located in the Tahoe National Forest, yet the Forest Service does not intend to place a marker on the site. 

Anyone wishing to visit the site should remember that it is a long and arduous hike up to the 9,143 elevation. The site will be featured in the next edition of the Commission’s interactive map and e-guide, which can be accessed from nevadacountylandmarks.com or the county website. 

~ Nevada County Historical Landmarks Commission press release

Moving In, Moving On, Moving Up

Visit Truckee-Tahoe CEO Colleen Dalton to Retire

TRUCKEE

The Visit Truckee-Tahoe (VTT) Board of Directors announced the retirement of CEO Colleen Dalton in September 2025. She led the Truckee Tourism Business Improvement District (TTBID) for a decade and enjoyed a 30-year career in adventure-travel and tourism. Jackie Calvert, current director of tourism management, will succeed Dalton as executive director following a 9-month transition. Dalton will stay on in an advisory role to provide mentorship and continuity for strategic priorities.

VTT’s transition to the next leader began with recruiting Calvert in May 2024. Jackie served 11.5 years at Palisades Tahoe/Squaw Valley Ski Corp in multiple marketing roles. Dalton and Calvert’s overlap period at VTT resulted in the successful renewal of a 10-year TTBID, Visit Truckee-Tahoe’s updated Two Year Strategic Plan, Tourism Economic Impact Report, and Brand position, in addition to the redesign of visittruckeetahoe.com (in progress).

Among her many accomplishments, Dalton served with the Truckee Chamber of Commerce from 2015 to 2020 as director of tourism & economic development, overseeing Truckee’s first TTBID. During her tenure, Dalton guided the creation of the Truckee Jobs Collective, Truckee Core Values Fund, Truckee Cultural District, “Base Camp for a Big Life” brand position, and Citizen Quality of Life surveys. Dalton also developed Truckee’s Economic Impact of Tourism Report, first measured at $149M in 2019 and then $245M in 2024, of which 85% is local spending by lodging guests.

Learn more at visittruckeetahoe.com/about. 

~ Visit Truckee-Tahoe press release

Tahoe Forest Recognized as a Certified Quality Breast Center of Excellence

TRUCKEE

Tahoe Forest Health System has been recognized as a Certified Quality Breast Center of Excellence in the National Quality Measures for Breast Centers Program (NQMBC), the highest level of recognition offered by the National Consortium of Breast Centers (NCBC). The certification is awarded to breast centers that demonstrate excellence in quality performance and accountability through rigorous data collection and benchmarking against national standards.

Achieving Certified Quality Breast Center of Excellence status confirms that Tahoe Forest Health System not only meets but exceeds national quality standards. It further reflects the organization’s investment in the latest technologies, clinical best practices, and a culture of continuous learning.

~ Tahoe Forest Health System press release