PAGNY’s Dr. Girshin and Colleagues Join SavingMothers.org to Provide Medical Care to Rural Dominicans

This past April, Dr. Michael Girshin, Chief of Anesthesiology at the NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan, joined a group of physicians from several New York City hospitals and a nonprofit organization, SavingMothers.org, to travel to a rural area of the Dominican Republic and provide medical and gynecological surgical care to local residents. The group included doctors from Mt. Sinai, NYU, and other facilities. SavingMothers.org is a charitable organization dedicated to helping expectant mothers in the developing world give birth in sanitary conditions.

Dr. Tara Shirazian, Chief Medical Officer of SavingMothers.org, who had visited this site several times in the past, led the New York delegation. PAGNY’s Dr. Girshin was in charge of the anesthesiology team, which also included Dr. Roman Margulis, Clinical Anesthesia resident from Westchester Medical Center; Kristen Finazzo, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA); Lauren Pfeiffer, a CRNA student and, two local anesthesiologists.

At the beginning of the stay, the team screened more than 200 patients for prospective surgeries. For the remainder of the week, the team ran two operating rooms from 8 a.m. through the late afternoon. Over the course of the five-day visit, the team conducted 45 surgeries, including 20 hysterectomies. All the surgeries were successful and there were no surgical or anesthesia complications.

In addition to the clinical work, Dr. Girshin gave a well-received lecture in a regional hospital on the topic of “Preoperative Assessment.” Congratulations to Dr. Girshin and the team for their compassionate and outstanding work.