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Auburn Memorial Hospital Physician and Nurse Will Travel to Honduras to Provide Medical Care
March 17, 2010 – Dr. Robert Strominger, an Ear, Nose & Throat specialist, and Janine Newert, RN, an operating room nurse at Auburn Memorial Hospital (AMH), will soon be travelling with a group of medical professionals to Juticalpa Olancho, Honduras to provide services that would not otherwise be available to the people of that region. They will be working under the auspices of the Catholic Medical Mission Board.
Dr. Strominger, who practices with Auburn ENT Services and is a member of the AMH Medical Staff, has been visiting Honduras annually since 1997. “Our team will work in a hospital built for them in 1992 by Japan,” he stated. “The hospital offers basic care but not the surgical services we provide, such as surgery for tonsils, tubes, mastoids, head and neck cancer, sinus problems, cleft palate, and other problems.”
The team going this month includes surgeons, anesthetists, nurses, and a dentist. Primary care doctors in the area will have 200 – 300 patients pre-screened for care by the team. As soon as they arrive, the health care professionals will begin seeing patients and then will begin surgeries. Anesthesia equipment has been provided in recent years through the Mission Board, and the team will bring many additional supplies with them.
Newert is working toward a Bachelor of Science degree at Keuka College in a program which requires 140 hours of clinical field experience. She had heard that Dr. Strominger made annual trips to Honduras, and asked him whether nurses are needed on such trips. “He asked me if I’d be willing to go with a group leaving on March 20,” she said. “The group includes nurses who have gone in past years and an entire Operating Room team. I was nervous, but excited. I’m looking forward to helping poor people who need care.”
Newert has worked at AMH since 1991. She said that her husband and three children, ages 10, 13 and 14, are proud of her. “They know I’m going to be helping kids,” she said.
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