Native of Elysburg heads up medical mission

By News-Item Staff)
Published: January 23, 2010

Article Tools
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
Our Social Networks
Facebook
Facebook
Sign Up newsletter

Photo: N/A, License: N/A

An Elysburg native is among several Penn State Hershey Medical Center doctors and nurses who are providing medical care to victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

The medical group departed for their mission to Port-au-Prince from Norfolk, Va., on Thursday night.

J. Spence Reid, an orthopaedic surgeon in the Penn State Hershey Bone and Joint Institute, is coordinating the medical mission with a pair of not-for-profit health organizations. The health groups are Partners in Health, which has been providing medical care in Haiti for more than 20 years, and Operation Smile, which is best known for providing care to children born with severe cleft lip and cleft palate conditions, but is currently focused on coordinating qualified medical volunteers to assist with relief efforts in Haiti.

Reid, who is the head of the trauma orthopaedic department, is a 1976 graduate of Southern Columbia Area High School. He is a son of Wanda Reid, a resident of the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, and formerly of Hershey, and the late John H. Reid, former longtime publisher of The News-Item in Shamokin.

He has two children, Katherine Reid, a senior at Messiah College, Grantham, and Ryan Reid, a graduate of Messiah College who currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Operation Smile has a great deal of experience working in under-served countries setting up surgical sites under challenging conditions," Reid said in a statement issued through the medical center. "Partners in Health is extremely familiar with the country of Haiti and its infrastructure.

He added, "We have faith in the ability of Operation Smile and Partners in Health to handle the logistics and that allows our team to concentrate on providing vital care to the many people in Haiti who desperately need it. We certainly hope to make a difference."

Reid said the medical team expects to be in Haiti for approximately two weeks.

In addition to Reid, the team includes orthopaedic surgeon Jay Bridgeman, plastic surgeon Shane Johnson, anesthesiologist Patrick McQuillan, clinical head nurse for orthopaedics Johni Bradney, surgical technologist Ami Willenbecher, orthopaedic resident Matthew Budge, nurse Maureen Kelley, and Peggy Schroeder, a nurse with PinnacleHealth.

Ads by Yahoo!






Type in the characters you see in the picture below. If you have trouble reading the characters in the picture, click it to see a new one.



Be the first to comment on this article!