Tahoe surgeon joins volunteers in Caribbean

To Dr. Steven Bannar, it may have taken a teaching trip a quarter of the way around the world to learn the most powerful lesson in American health care.

We have it good.

Bannar just returned from 23 days at St. Lucia island in the Caribbean with the Health Volunteers Overseas, a private nonprofit dedicated to improving global health through education and training. Bannar's first trip with the organization formed in 1986 as a division of the World Health Organization in 1995 was to south and central Vietnam.

"It's hard to imagine the resources of the Third World. They're stretched to the limit without a natural disaster," he said of Dec. 25's tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

With Sri Lanka now getting its first reports of measles and diarrhea, health officials fear the worst is to come in terms of the disaster's death toll.

The South Lake Tahoe orthopedist predicted infection and disease would claim as many lives as the tsunami.

During his tour of duty at St. Jude Hospital in St. Lucia, it became quickly apparent that volunteer doctors have to make do with what they have.

There's difficulty in even finding an adequate number of writing pens and securing antibiotics.

Bannar brought surgical instruments and implant materials donated by Barton Memorial Hospital.

Unlike the United States, joint-replacement technology is unavailable.

"It's hard for them to comprehend that jump," he said. In comparison, knee replacements, for example, are common here.

Bannar returned with a deep sense of appreciation for what he has after facing a world of poverty.

"These trips open up our minds to the bigger picture," he said. "Sanitizing is the most important. Fixing one severed arm is a drop in the bucket compared to what they're going through."

Bannar showed the St. Lucia doctors how they could reattach tendons and nerves on severed limbs.

"We didn't teach them how to do American medicine. We teach them to maximize resources and get the best results," he said.

Because the island community is along a drug-trade path, the majority of the medical community's cases involve violence, infections, trauma and car accidents.

Susan Wood can be reached at (530) 542-8009 or via e-mail at swood@tahoedailytribune.com.