Not Always Superficial

Looking Past the Plastic, Cosmetic Surgeons Give Back

by Alexandra Scarfone

 

Northern Virginia Magazine recently talked to several local cosmetic surgeons and found out that while their practices may deal with the superficial, it’s not all about that. Charity work and giving back to local, national and international communities are an important part of what they do.

Dr. Byron Poindexter,

a staff surgeon at the Austin-Weston Center for Cosmetic Surgery, has done extensive local charity work. During a summer open house for My Sisters’ Place, a group that works to end domestic violence, he helped fundraise and provided his services for battered spouses. He also put together an auction with the National Capital Society for Plastic Surgery to help the D.C. Burn Foundation. The foundation is run by firemen in the District, and the proceeds of the auction were used to buy supplies and services for burn victims.

One of Poindexter’s most prominent contributions, however, has been sponsoring the Wounded Warrior Project, which provides care to severely wounded service members during their time of  transition from active military duty to civilian life.

“I think this is a great program because it’s providing an important service to these people who are going through a difficult transition,” he says.

The Middleburg Humane Foundation is another charity that Dr. Poindexter enjoys supporting. He has doctored wounded animals and brought supplies to the area. Poindexter joined in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as well, sending a van of goods to the area, as well as a small team to help and work in the clinics.

“And I always enjoy doing charity work with my wife, who contributes to the Loudoun County Agency on Aging,” he adds. “They are always in need of volunteers.”

 

Dr. Robert Sigal,

the medical director at the Austin-Weston Center, also enjoys giving back locally. As a Jefferson graduate, he endows a scholarship to help medical students at the college. He says, “I always try to give back to my roots, to where I come from.”

Dr. Sigal has also participated in several charity bike rides, including one for breast cancer called the Pan Mass Challenge, which involved him riding across Massachusetts, and another that had him biking across Alaska for AIDS. Sigal also contributes regularly to The Hunger Project, an organization meant to empower people in impoverished countries to become self-sufficient.

Internationally, Sigal has done charitable work in Haiti. He took a team there to perform surgeries, which took place in a tent on the airport grounds due to limited access to medical facilities. The trip involved about 45 cases per week.

“It was a crazy experience; many … are badly in need of medical attention and just don’t have anywhere to go,” he says.

 

Dr. Haven Barlow,

of Barlow Cosmetic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, has worked with Operation Smile in the past. He has volunteered to go to Third World countries to repair cleft lips, and treat burns and scars through the program as well as through Smile Train, which has similar goals.

“Working with these organizations is extremely rewarding,” says Dr. Barlow. “We get to use our skills in areas of the world that wouldn’t otherwise have had access.”

Barlow has also worked abroad in Ghana, through a program called Operation: Heart, where he treated children who had ulcers caused by bacteria—which, if left untreated, would eat through their tissue and cripple them with debilitating scars.

In addition, Barlow’s practice participates with patients from other countries who need to come to the United States to have surgery, as their treatments often require hospitalization and extensive, multiple surgeries that
can’t be performed in remote countries. He has also traveled to the Philippines three times to treat patients there, each time paying his own way.

Locally, Dr. Barlow has worked with the Fairfax County Free Clinic, helping remove tattoos from former gang members. One of the requirements of the clinic’s program is that the children must stay in school, maintain a C average and abstain from associating with the gang.

“I think it’s a great program because it gives kids a chance to go back to school and get away from their old lifestyle,” Barlow says.

Like Baker, Barlow emphasizes that work done within one’s own practice can be just as important.

“Most of us in our everyday practices do a lot of free care for people who require medical treatment and don’t have the money for it,” he says. “It’s often reconstruction resulting from trauma, disease, assault … and I volunteer my time and services to take care of those injuries.

 

Dr. Stephen Baker,

a plastic surgeon for Georgetown University, has contributed extensively to charity work abroad, as well. He worked with KomedyPlast, an organization that provides intracranial surgery in Peru and Ecuador. Baker brought his own team to the countries, consisting of a neurosurgeon, anesthesiologist and nurses, as well as his own equipment, and operated and reconstructed deformed skulls. In Peru, he and his team had two operating rooms and conducted three or four cases a day throughout the week. He has been providing his services abroad there for four years and is one of the founding members of the organization.

Locally, Baker contributes two Thursdays each month to help run a clinic that manages the care of children in need in the D.C.-Metro area. He repairs cleft lips and palates, congenital lesions and growth abnormalities for them.

On charity work, one point Bakers stresses is how much can be done right here at home.

“There is a lot to contribute without leaving the U.S.,” he says. “A big part of what I do to help my patients is to participate with their insurance companies, such as Medicaid, allowing patients often needing reconstructive surgeries to be covered under their insurance plans. Often, these companies reimburse me for less than the cost of running my practice, but I will continue to accept patients who cannot afford to pay for their surgeries without insurance.”

Dr. Baker does enjoy helping out on the international level as well, though. He has worked with Operation Smile, which provides care for children with facial deformities in various countries around the world.

“I worked with Operation Smile to operate on an Ethiopian girl who had sustained trauma as a young child and needed care she couldn’t get in her country,” he says.

 

Dr. Steven Davison,

of DAVinci Plastic Surgery, does much of his charity work with the local Catholic Charities. He helps take care of the expenses associated with oncological reconstructions, breast reconstructions and other various surgeries for people in need. He commits his time and money to the patients’ follow-up care, including further stages of operations when they are needed.

Davison follows his own philosophy when it comes to figuring out where he wants to contribute, saying: “The charities that make the most sense to contribute to are the ones where you can apply your skills to those patients who are really in need.”

Dr. Davison has a contract with the Iraq Star Foundation, a program dedicated to providing necessary reconstructive surgeries to U.S. war veterans. Davison provides the additional services they require and can no longer receive once they have been discharged from the military. He uses his own operating room and anesthesia services, and often collaborates with other local surgeons to provide the proper care for
our soldiers.

Davison has also gone on several medical missions to Vietnam as well, the last of which was in 1999, to do work on cleft lips and palates, providing these medical services in places where there are none. And he has plans to put together future missions abroad, in Vietnam and elsewhere.

 

How You Can Help

Operation Smile

You can contribute to Operation Smile by joining their student youth programs or becoming a community volunteer. The organization has a variety of student programs, including a program that allows students to raise money while participating in their favorite sports.

Visit www.operationsmile.org/get_involved/ to become a volunteer.

Other opportunities to contribute include creating a OneSmile Page, which allows you to set a fundraising goal and track donations online.

 

My Sisters’ Place

The organization has a 24-hour hotline, a children’s program and a community outreach program you can volunteer for, working to help children of abused homes and battered spouses recover.

You can sign up to volunteer by sending an email to volunteer@mysistersplacedc.org.

 

Iraq Star Foundation

To help provide care for wounded soldiers, you can donate to the foundation by visiting their website: www.iraqstar.org.

 

Middleburg Humane Foundation

You can volunteer at the foundation by walking the dogs at the shelter, fundraising, transporting animals to and from veterinary appointments and more. Visit www.middleburghumane.org to volunteer your time.

Donation items needed include gas cards, postage stamps, cat scratching posts, canned and dry cat or dog food, cat litter and more, which can be contributed by emailing mhfdtn@earthlink.net.

The foundation is always looking for good homes for their animals as well. You can find out about adoption by contacting mhf14@verizon.net.

 

Wounded Warrior Project

If you are a corporation that would like to get involved, you can become a corporate sponsor by visiting www.woundedwarriorproject.org.

All kinds of groups can plan a benefit dinner, concert or sports tournament to help fundraising for the project. Register your event at www.woundedwarriorproject.org to have the proceeds benefit the Wounded Warriors.

Volunteer your time at a Wounded Warrior Project event and help spread awareness. If you’d like to become a volunteer, visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org.

 

Komedy Plast

Help children around the world with congenital abnomalities, and help them smile. You can volunteer your time to the organization by emailing jweinzweig@komedyplast.org, or make a donation by visiting http://komedyplast.org/donations.htm

(October 2011)

Tags: cosmetic, Operation Smile, operation wounded warrior, Plastic Surgery, volunteer