Amid a heat wave, 250 volunteers from the Keck School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine and other Keck of USC staff offered aid to runners in the annual L.A. Marathon on March 15.

Allison Sarff Luu, MD, assists an ailing runner.

Officials said about 2,000 people were treated by medical personnel along the route.

Volunteers who staffed the 12 medical stations along the course and at the finish line included medical students from the Keck School of Medicine, plus students and professionals that included physical therapists, physicians assistants, medical assistants, nurses, and resident and attending physicians from LAC+USC, Harbor-UCLA and UCLA-Olive View. Nurses from Keck Hospital of USC also joined the effort.

Because of the heat, marathon organizers arranged special “cooling stations” and moved up the start time of the race by half an hour.

As in years past, many organizations coordinated fund-raising activities with marathon participation. One example was a partnership between the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program at USC (AYA@USC) and the Concern Foundation that resulted in a $50,000 grant for the adolescent and young adult cancer program at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

— Kim Pluth