Medical Transcription Billing, Corp., MTBC ::: Press Release :::

May 24, 2004

MTBC's Dr. Gerard Foti: Changing War-Torn Lives, One Surgery at a Time.

President's Introduction:

We are proud to have Dr. Gerard Foti as our client

David Rosenblum

Berwick doc aids kids in Mideast
Orthopedic surgeon treated 50 patients during February trip
By MICHAEL REICH
Press Enterprise Writer

BERWICK, Pennsylvania. — Palestinian children left neglected by the medical system of a war-torn land got some free help recently from Berwick's Dr. Gerard Foti. The orthopedic surgeon was at a hospital in the West Bank town of Jericho for a week in late February, doing six or seven surgeries to correct clubfeet and scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine.

He saw a total of about 50 patients, ages 15 months to 15 years, including a few children bearing gunshot injuries from the fighting that plagues that part of the world. Foti said the health services available there are far from the best.

"It was almost like stepping back 40 years to practice medicine," he said.

Foti had to rely on old equipment and enjoyed few modern-day technological advantages. If patients needed an MRI test, they'd have to travel miles.

The lack of technology means doctors have to be resourceful. Foti says many do the best they can, but sometimes that isn't enough.

"Medical care is not as bad as you would think, but still for the children, they're kind of neglected," he said. "They just don't have the facilities to take care of a lot of the congenital deformities that we see over here."

Orthopedic surgeons who do work in Jericho are almost always focused on adult work, leaving children with few options, according to Foti.

He worked through a program called the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, which he heard of about six months ago through a physician's assistant student who's a native of the Mideast.

By December, Foti was set to volunteer his time and expertise. "Helping children is definitely the most important part of what we do," he said.

Return trip planned

Foti, whose sub-specialty is spine surgery, was able to correct some conditions, but others would have to wait.

"Some of the scoliosis cases we saw were so severe that we didn't really attempt to do anything because they didn't have the services to allow us to get the surgery done," he said.

Such patients were part of the reason Foti visited the Ministry of Health in Jericho in an attempt to set up scoliosis screenings in schools. He said those checks could catch some of the spine curvatures before they require major surgery.

The doctor wants to head back to the Holy Land again around September.

Calling this first trip "more of an organizational one", he hopes the second time around he and other doctors can work more efficiently and offer more help to those who need it.

Foti said he also wants to give lectures at colleges there so native doctors can learn to give better care.

Good people in a bad situation

The tense situation in the West Bank was evident to the doctor from the time he arrived.

At the airport, he said, Israeli security hyped up the dangers that lay ahead of him in Jericho, almost trying to scare him away from helping Palestinians.

His first day there, he added, a bomb exploded on a bus, killing eight and injuring 50.

Still, while working in the hospital or walking around the city, Foti says he never really felt the threat of danger.

In fact, the doctor said he was impressed by how hospitable people were and how grateful they were for his help.


DR. GERARD FOTI is back in his Berwick office after performing orthopedic surgery among Palestinians in Jericho. Foti plans to make a return trip to the region.		DR. GERARD FOTI of Berwick, (center) performs surgery on a Palestinian child with a clubfoot during a trip to the West Bank city of Jericho.

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