Page 35 - 578941 Sun City flipbook
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During the 2010 earthquake in Haiti,
this two year old boy sustained severe
injuries resulting in the loss of his limb.
to render trauma care. Housing and food for the surgical teams team have worked in San Pedro Sula,
were provided by Partners in Health, a Honduras. The healing hand certainly
Smith’s team was sent to a small hospital non-governmental organization. Every runs in the family – Smith’s son is an
just outside of Port au Prince. There, they day, after 20 plus hours of surgery, Smith orthopedic surgeon in Houston, his
found 500 people with broken bones and and his crew ate a dinner of rice, beans, daughter is a nurse in San Francisco
crushed extremities, in need of surgery goat meat and plantains before retiring and his granddaughter is a student at
and lying on the ground. Dust covered to a small room where sleeping bags Southwestern University of Georgetown.
every surface. Thick, airborne debris con- on a hard floor awaited them. Though Smith’s son, daughter and granddaughter
taining bacteria had settled into open their team treated thousands of patients, all participate on these missions.
wounds, often causing life-threatening medical care remains a great need in
infections. The wounds needed constant Haiti and Operation Rainbow continues After 27 years, Smith retired from his
attention to prevent additional complica- to send teams there. practice in 2013 and moved from San
tions. Francisco to Sun City Texas. Despite
Over the past five years, Smith and his retirement, he still maintains his
Smith and his team got two operating overseas work - in 2015, he joined the
rooms up and running, working almost Operation Rainbow team to India.
around the clock. Because of frequent and When he isn’t caring for patients, Smith
unpredictable power outages, they often participates in Senior University and
performed operations in extreme heat with several clubs, including Hiking, Nature
headlamps as their only source of light. and Hunting & Fishing, to name a few.
When Haiti ran out of narcotics for pain The passion is obvious. When Smith
control, actor Sean Penn contacted Hugo describes what he and his team do, his
Chavez, President of Venezuela, and a whole demeanor shifts. His face lights
plane loaded with morphine soon land- up and he loves to share the heartfelt
ed. This delivery was a huge help to the experiences of helping these children.
medical team. The U.S. Navy’s hospital He knows without his help these kids
ship accepted several of Smith’s severely have little hope of living a normal life. He
injured patients, and additionally pro- said, “It is the most rewarding thing you
vided Smith’s team with heparin to treat will ever do in the practice of medicine.”
blood clots caused by pelvic fractures.
To learn more about Operation Rainbow,
go to www.operationrainbow.org.
ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG In Haiti, doctors were forced to be
resourceful with anything they could
find. Here, a weighted jug provides the
necessary traction to keep this man’s
broken leg in place.
JUNE 2016 SUNRAYS | 33
