George Pobi plays a crucial role as an employee at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, but he fills a position most people don’t think about when they visit the hospital.
As the lead clinical engineering technician, Pobi is responsible for maintaining and repairing the ventilators that keep people breathing and the monitors that track vital signs — along with the rest of the diagnostic, therapeutic and life-support equipment used throughout the hospital.
But the role he fills at the hospital that arguably makes an even bigger impact on many of his colleagues is one that’s not included in his job description.
“George is a veteran. He is a Marine,” said Rhonda Turner, Legacy Salmon Creek’s director of surgical services. “Our nurses call him and let him know we have patients with post-traumatic stress disorder or having flashbacks from World War II, and he just sits with them.”
“I just believe in sharing the love,” Pobi explained. “I believe part of my mission in life is to shine some light on those folks.”
Pobi, 56, was recently honored by Legacy Health with the Oscar and Helen Gustafson Award, an award given annually to one employee at each Legacy hospital. That same week, the Felida man received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for logging more than 10,000 volunteer hours — far more than the 4,000-hour minimum for the award.
“My scrub cap got a little tighter because my head swelled,” Pobi joked.
Pobi was born in Montreal in September 1958, two weeks after his parents immigrated to Canada from Yugoslavia. When Pobi was 12, the family moved to Riverside, Calif., where Pobi graduated from high school at age 16 — the result of skipping two grades after moving to the U.S. He joined the Marines on his 17th birthday.
After six years of service, Pobi took his training as a radio operator and wireman and went to work for a telephone company. But he soon felt like he was at a dead end climbing telephone poles.
“I wanted to do something to help people, especially veterans, my brother Marines,” Pobi said.
Pobi went to school with the help of the GI Bill and obtained an electronics degree. He went to work in the medical field right after graduation, taking a position with a ventilator company.
‘Stuck in my mind’
Early in his career, while checking the company’s equipment at a Seattle pediatric hospital, Pobi encountered a mother in the neonatal intensive care unit. She rocked her tiny baby, hooked up to a ventilator, as Pobi explained that he was responsible for maintaining the equipment.
” ‘Thank you. God bless you. You saved my baby’s life,’ ” Pobi recalled the woman telling him. “That thing stuck in my mind to this day.”
Pobi knew he had found the right career.
In 1984, a 26-year-old Pobi was hired by Legacy Health — then Metropolitan Hospitals — and began working on life-support equipment at what is now Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. In 2005, Pobi helped to open Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center.
Pobi starts every day on the job by making rounds to each of the hospital departments, checking to make sure all of the equipment is working properly and making necessary repairs.
“Our job is to make sure their tools are doing what they should be so they can provide the best possible care to our patients,” Pobi said.
Pobi also trains clinical staff on how to use the equipment and advises administration on new equipment purchases. He serves on various hospital committees, including as the co-chairman of the Legacy veterans resource group.
On Christmas, Pobi dresses up as Santa Claus and visits the children in the hospital. On Veterans Day, he visits every veteran in the hospital and presents each with a certificate of appreciation.
On Memorial Day, Pobi displays a battle cross — boots with a black shroud and helmet — and an information board explaining the meaning and origins of Memorial Day.
“I think a lot of people take that three-day weekend for granted,” Pobi said. “It was paid in blood.”
When he’s not at the hospital, Pobi is likely volunteering with the Young Marines — a community youth group Pobi founded in 2002 — or “loving his sweetheart bride of 31 years,” Rachel Pobi. He likes to backpack, hike, fly-fish, draw, build models and enjoy an occasional beer.
Above all, he likes to serve, whether it’s veterans, people in the community or the patients in the hospital.
“This is one of those jobs where you really do make a difference,” Pobi said.
