Plastic Surgery Charity

Today’s cases ended about an hour ago. Somewhat frustrating because a case that would have taken me 1 hour in the States took 3 hours because of the lack of the proper skin grafting machine. My wife has tackled this and one should be showing up in the next few days. Time management is very important here as there are so many cases to get done in these 5 ORs. The other 2 Plastic Surgeons just left for the airport, over the last 24 hours they’ve handed over their cases to me. Tomorrow should be very busy.

Drove with 25 people in 5 vehicle caravan from the Dominican town of Barahona at first light. Crossing the border into Haiti, was crowded but seemed extremely safe. We traveled 11 Km to an orphanage that’s been converted into a medical facility. Patients are receiving incredible care considering the circumstances. I branched off from my last team and I’m now at Good Samaritan Hospital being briefed by 2 Plastic Surgeons from Florida who are heading home tomorrow. Here major surgeries are being performed in 5 ORs daily. I just watched a 6 week old little girl come in in respiratory arrest.

I arrived in the DR around 2:30 yesterday morning, stopped at a friend’s parents house for some light food and 2 hours of sleep. We happened upon a small hospital with several Plastic Surgery and Orthopedic patients waiting for someone to help them.   I let my team continue on and I stayed behind with Dr. Michael Vitale, an orthopedist that I met, to do the necessary work. We did 13 cases and are now figuring out how to get to a new Haitian facility where their casualties are being taken.

As I write this my office is organizing my departure for Haiti tomorrow.  Like everyone I’ve been watching the horrific images on the nightly news for a week now.  Last night I decided that I could not sit around and watch any more.  Since our first medical mission last month to the Dominican Republic I’ve come to realize that charity work is one of those deeds which encourages you to do more.  If you can help us in any way please contact my office at 212.744.9400 and speak with Fatima.

Thank you

Today is December 17th and I returned from The Divino Nino Foundation’s medical mission 5 days ago.  Going to the Dominican Republic to operate on the needy is an eye opening experience.  My colleagues and I evaluated and operated on 155 patients.  Their problems ranged from poor dental hygiene to advanced inoperable breast cancer.  Ironically both of these conditions, though extreme, could have been prevented from reaching the stages that we saw in the clinic there.  Small children were seen with horrific deformities from burns and trauma which are less common in t