CHICAGO – Society for Vascular Surgery® member, Marcus D’Ayala, M.D., of Brooklyn volunteered to spend two weeks treating wounded American soldiers transported from Afghanistan to the U.S. Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany.
“I volunteered because I felt the need to give something back to this great country of ours,” said Dr. D’Ayala of New York Methodist Hospital. “It was a very rewarding experience.”
For two weeks, Dr. D’Ayala applied his vascular surgery skills to help Wounded Warriors. “Our military is to be congratulated for their professionalism,” he said. “They do an outstanding job at tremendous personal risk. I have a newfound appreciation for how lucky we are to be alive, healthy, and living in the greatest country on earth. I would gladly volunteer again.”
Dr. D’Ayala’s volunteer service at LRMC extended from Apr. 1-14, 2012. As the largest American hospital outside the United States, LRMC is an American College of Surgeons Level 1 Trauma Center. Since 2001, the medical staff at LRMC has treated more than 64,000 patients from Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Since Sept. 2007, 72 Society for Vascular Surgery® (SVS) members have volunteered to supplement the limited number of vascular surgeons at the medical center. “The Society for Vascular Surgery is proud to have provided continuous two-week rotations of vascular surgeons at LRMC for the past four years,” said 2011-2012 SVS President Dr. Richard Cambia. “As vascular surgeons, we help repair damaged arteries and veins of coalition military personnel in the Global War on Terror."
It was in 2006 that SVS member and retired U.S. Army Col. David Gillespie of the Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General and professor of surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., asked Society members to share their medical expertise as volunteer surgeons at LRMC. Immediately, SVS members responded to support the troops. Currently, there is a waiting list of 2011-2012 SVS members desiring to volunteer at LRMC.
About the Society for Vascular Surgery®The Society for Vascular Surgery® (SVS) is a not-for-profit professional medical society, composed primarily of vascular surgeons, that seeks to advance excellence and innovation in vascular health through education, advocacy, research, and public awareness. SVS is the United States advocate for 3,750 specialty-trained vascular surgeons and other medical professionals who are dedicated to the prevention and cure of vascular disease. Visit its Web site at
www.VascularWeb.org® and follow SVS on Facebook and Twitter.