There is a young Haitian girl in Marbial whose life is about the change dramatically. The girl, about 13 years old, has a large congenital tumor on her face, a deformity she has probably had since birth. She is slated to be one of the first patients in line for surgery when Bridgeport Hospital surgeons set up camp in a hospital in Jacmel. Richard Garvey met the girl last year on St. Mary’s reconnaissance trip to Marbial and indentified her as a candidate for surgery.

The girl’s procedure is being led by Mark Bianchi, chief of otolaryngology at Bridgeport Hospital, with support from Garvey and certified nurse anesthetist Franz Paul. As an otolaryngologist, Bianchi specializes in ear, nose and throat disorders and surgeries of the head and neck. He says her case is a tricky one because during surgery he has to be careful not to harm the facial nerve or risk facial paralysis for the girl (pictured at left/photo by Garvey).

“The surgery is very meticulous and somewhat longer than it normally would be,” Bianchi said. “It could be very dramatic.”

The goal of the surgery is two-fold: to improve the girl’s quality of life by removing the disfiguring growth and preventing possible complications down the road for her. Bianchi said such tumors have a higher rate of turning into cancerous tumors.

The surgical team in Jacmel will face a wide range of problems and will have to make difficult decisions about who they can treat and who they cannot treat. Certain complex surgeries that require follow-up more than a week later might not be able to happen because the medical team will not be around long enough to ensure the proper follow-up. It is not yet known if the team will see many people with wounds left over from the earthquake. What is almost certain is there will be no shortage of people in need of help from the surgical team.

It is two days before the St. Mary’s medical mission embarks for Haiti and the team just got great news: Trip leader Richard Garvey was named doctor of the year by the Greater Bridgeport Medical Association.
Pretty cool timing, if you ask trip organizer Michael Mercurio.
“I think it’s absolutely outstanding,” he said.

Garvey is a veteran surgeon at Bridgeport Hospital with more than three decades of experience under his belt and a stellar reputation in his field. But the award is just as much for his community outreach as it is for his work in the operating room. He was selected from about 200 physicians for the honor and will receive the award in May.

The news comes just two months after another team member, Susan Marchitto, was named Connecticut School Nurse of the Year. Marchitto is a school nurse at Washington Elementary School in West Haven.

The children and adults of Marbial (pictured at left/photos by Garvey) stand to benefit when the superstar-studded team of medical professionals and church volunteers pays them a visit next week. And though not everyone on the team has a “best physician of the year” designation at the end of their name, everyone on the trip has impressive medical credentials, inspiring stories of past volunteer work and medical missions, and big hearts. Mark Bianchi is an ear, nose and throat specialist who has spent the last 13 years engaging in countless hours to pro-bono health care for underprivileged children in Bridgeport. Mary Lou Gaeta, director of the pediatric inpatient unit at Bridgeport Hospital, accompanied a medical team to Thailand to help children with cleft lips, facial deformities or severe burns. Frederick Ramos, a second-year medical resident at Bridgeport Hospital, went on an average of four medical missions a year as a med student in the Philippines.

And that’s just to name a few…

A team of doctors, nurses and volunteers is getting up bright and early Saturday morning to embark on a trip that will change their lives forever, but more importantly, change the lives of sick and injured Haitian people living in the rural mountain village of Marbial.

The team is kicking off their journey at 5 a.m. in the parking lot of Milford’s St. Mary Church, where the idea for the medical mission was born almost three years ago. It was long before a powerful earthquake struck in Haiti, bringing widespread death and devastation to a national already ravaged by extreme poverty and dismal living conditions. After the earthquake hit, the team members decided that it was more important than ever to stay on track with the mission. Often when major disasters happen, aid pours in at first but slowly trails off in the weeks and months to come. That’s when the Milford team is set to arrive and get to work.

The group will travel from Port-au-Prince to the southern port town of Jacmel and then down a bumpy dry riverbed to Marbial, where St. Mary's "twin" parish, St. Therese, patiently awaits their arrival.  (At left is a picture of St. Therese and another of the "road" to Marbial. The photos were taken last year by Bridgeport Hospital surgeon Richard Garvey, one of the trip's organizers.) 

This blog will follow the efforts of the St. Mary medical mission to bring medicine, health care and hope to some of the neediest people on the planet. The volunteers are taking time from their busy lives to travel to a country plagued by malnutrition, disease, unclean drinking water and crumbled infrastructure. Each volunteer has his or her own expertise to lend to the mission. Doctors, surgeons, nurses, a medical student and church volunteers, all with a common goal: leaving the Haitian people a little bit healthier and happier than they found them.