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| Schwentker
holds a child in need of surgery.
Photo
courtesy of Dr. Edwards Schwentker |
The name San Pedro Sula means the "valley of
birds," and twice a year, there is indeed a
migration to this beautiful city in northern Honduras.
Hundreds of children spend up to two days on dilapidated
yellow school buses to reach San Pedro Sula and
the volunteer pediatric orthopaedics team from Penn
State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Poor children
in Honduras have no access to elective orthopaedic
care, except through projects from North America,
such as this one.
Twice a year, Dr. Edwards Schwentker, professor
of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Penn State,
leads a team of physicians, nurses, medical students
and other health professionals to Honduras, where
they perform a series of corrective surgical procedures
on children and offer training to Honduran orthopaedic
surgeons.
"In addition to birth defects,
like a club foot, we very often see complications
from a fracture or infection that lead to major
disabilities," said Schwentker, coordinator
of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Project since 1995.
"In an agrarian society, these deformities
can be devastating."
One boy who met with Schwentker had lived his entire
14-year-old life with legs so badly bowed and twisted
that while he faced forward, his feet faced backwards.
Due to time constraints, Schwentker was unable to
operate immediately, but scheduled the boy for surgery
during the team's subsequent trip.
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| Surgeons
travel to San Pedro Sula twice a year. |
When Schwentker met Tania, an incomplete conjoint
twin, she was an orphan with three legs and an
extra urethra. Her case required care that could
only be administered by a multispecialty pediatric
surgical team (pediatric plastics, pediatric orthopaedics,
general pediatric surgery and pediatric urology),
so she was brought back to Hershey Medical Center
for successful surgery.
In the Honduran town, the Penn State team works
out of a small government hospital. Much of the
equipment and supplies taken to Honduras have
been salvaged by personnel at the Hershey Medical
Center from what would otherwise be discarded.
Some are purchased from donated funds.
In addition to seeing almost 200 children and
operating on more than 50 patients during their
two-week trips, Schwentker works with Honduran
orthopaedic surgeons and pediatricians who help
provide the patient care. "They're a very
dedicated, skillful group, and one of the goals
is to create an ongoing program to train local
doctors to provide orthopaedic care," he
said.
WHO
TO CONTACT
For
additional information on the Pediatric Orthopaedic
Project, please contact Edwards Schwentker,
MD, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, at 717-531-7315
or eschwentker@psu.edu.
For additional information on Medical Ministry
International, visit http://www.mmint.org,
or Cure International, visit http://www.ccure.org. |
The Pediatric Orthopaedic Project has been coordinated
through Medical Ministry International, and now,
more recently, through Cure International. These
are two nonprofit organizations that provide healing
for children in the developing world. While the
team is housed in a Honduran home, the Penn State
volunteers pay all their own transportation and
daily expenses.
"We feel an obligation
to work for society," Schwentker said.
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Men are more reluctant than
women to face up to worrisome symptoms or go
to the doctor for check-ups, notes Dr. Tim Johnson,
the medical editor for ABC News and keynote
speaker for an upcoming National Conference
on Men's Health, organized by Penn State. "That's
probably one big reason why men's life expectancy
... lags behind women's," he said.
Consider the following:
- The average life span for men is amost six
years shorter than for women.
- Men are four times more likely to commit suicide
than women.
- Men die at higher rates than women from the
top 10 causes of death.
Such compelling statistics are the main reason
behind a national conference to discuss the state
of men's health. The conference, created and organized
by Dr. Christopher Dufour, senior conference planner
at Penn State, will bring together on May 20–22
in Arlington, Va., some of the nation's most respected
health authorities, including Dr. David Satcher,
former U.S. surgeon general, and Dr. Georges Benjamin,
executive director of the American Public Health
Association. Some 70 experts will make presentations,
including from Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical
Center: Dr. Laurence M. Demers, Distinguished
Professor of Pathology and Medicine, and Dr. J.
C. Trussell, staff physician in the Division of
Urology.
Doctors, nurses and community health advocates
will attend the conference, which will explore
the latest medical advances and procedures, behavioral
factors, gender-specific community health initiatives
and policy issues related to men.
"It is time to increase the awareness of
men to the importance of health promotion and
disease prevention. Men can live longer and healthier
lives by making educated health decisions and
through early detection and treatment of diseases
common or unique to them," Satcher said.
Sponsors of the conference include Penn State
Outreach, the College of Health and Human Development
and Penn State College of Medicine, in partnership
with the Men's Health Network, the International
Society for Men's Health and the World Congress
on Men's Health.
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PSAs
aim to reduce student smoking. |
"Twelve hundred die every day ... every
day 1,200 die." So begins each of six antismoking
television public service announcements (PSAs) produced
by Media Solutions/Penn State Public Broadcasting
in partnership with University Health Services.
Created by Topher Yorks, a producer and director
at WPSX-TV, the 15-second spots focus on issues
designed to grab attention: manipulation by Big
Tobacco, unpleasant physical side-effects and even
reduced sexual performance—all with the message:
"And you thought smoking only caused cancer."
Funded in part by monies allocated to the Pennsylvania
Department of Health as part of the large tobacco
settlement, Penn State's antismoking PSAs are airing
on University Park campus through Channel 72 and
on five commercial stations in Centre County: Adelphia
Cable, WJAC, WTAJ, WATM and CNET. Posters produced
by the Penn State Department of University Publications
further the impact.
"Our data indicates
that roughly 21 percent of Penn State students smoke,"
said Linda LaSalle, community health educator with
Penn State University Health Services. "There
aren't any PSAs broadcast in Centre County that
address these issues. We hope that by increasing
awareness of these issues, we will discourage young
adults from starting to smoke and encourage current
smokers to quit." |
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