One Good Samaritan Hospital doctor played an integral role in saving a sick one-year old adrift off the coast of Mexico, while other doctors delivered babies and saved lives in remote African villages.
This month Los Gatos resident and Good Samaritan anesthesiologist, Dr. Mark Bomann took part in a complex, over-water rescue of small patient and her family aboard a distressed sailboat. The story made headlines around the world. Bomann was the medical coordinator in the Rescue Operations Center for the rescue mission of one-year old Lyra Kaufman 900 miles of the coast of Mexico. Dr. Bomann is a flight surgeon for the California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing located at Moffett Federal Airfield, Calif.
“It is a great experience to be able to use my medical skills and my military training to help patients. There is never a dull moment,” says Bomann.
In March, four caregivers from Good Sam traveled to Mbarara, Uganda to work with the medical staff at Mbarara University Teaching Hospital. Dr. Gordon Rosenberg, OBGYN, Dr. Harrison Chow, anesthesiologist,Dr. Michael Margolis, Surgeon, and Kimberly Mallory, RN performed 47 gynecological surgeries and 15 cesarean sections in only five days. Their trip was coordinated by Medlend and they sponsored their own ways.
“Medical volunteers from the Bay Area have been helping hundreds of women in Uganda with obstetric fistulas for the last five years”, says Margolis. “In addition, we teach local physicians how to perform the surgeries themselves and we donate critical operating room equipment. We will continue to work there until they no longer need our help,” says Margolis.