Beyond language: Amistad expands Air Force psychologist’s clinical reach

The 12-year-old patient knew what a seizure felt like. What the patient did not know was how to stop the fear that another one was coming. When the patient’s heart began racing and breathing became difficult, fear of another seizure intensified into a panic attack severe enough to prompt a visit to the emergency room at Hospital Regional Dr. Luis Manuel Morillo King. The patient was referred to the hospital’s mental health team, where U.S. Air Force Maj. Milagros Gargurevich worked with the patient and family, teaching techniques they could use beyond the hospital walls. Gargurevich helped them understand the connection between anxiety and the body’s physical response and how to slow that cycle before fear took control. It was one patient in a clinical environment Gargurevich never expected to work in when she arrived for Amistad 2026. Gargurevich, 75th Medical Group clinical psychologist, came to the Dominican Republic as a Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) participant, expecting her Spanish-language skills to help bridge communication between U.S. and Dominican medical professionals. Then the psychologists at Morillo King learned their LEAP colleague was also a psychologist, and her role changed.