This article, the fifth in a series of interviews
with VESI volunteers, features Dr. Robert Sargent, a Denver
ophthalmologist who specializes in pediatric care.
Tell us about your background.
I’m originally from the east coast. I went to Amherst College and then
to medical school at the State University of New York in Syracuse. I had
my internship in Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati and I had my
residency at Georgetown University Hospital. Then I studied a year at
Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia specializing in pediatric
ophthalmology. I practiced until 1997, when I retired to do charity
work. I'm on the admissions committee for the University of Colorado, so
I interview students applying to medial school.
In terms of your work as a medical volunteer, where have you served?
It’s a huge list. I’ve been to Romania, Dominican Republic, Guatemala,
Honduras, Bulgaria, Mexico, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Kurdistan, China,
India, Bolivia, Ecuador, Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia, Chile,
Libya, Tunisia, Vietnam.
Do you have a favorite country?
It’s a very tough question. It’s nice to go back to places where I know
people, like Vietnam or Bangladesh or China. But I also like going to
places where translation is not necessary. For example, in India they
speak English, so it’s very easy to give lectures in because I don’t
need a translator. By the way, I speak Spanish and I do my own lectures
in Spanish in Latin America, in the Caribbean, Central and South
America.
What drives you to seek out these opportunities?
The whole experiences of having the light bulbs go on and you suddenly
see the comprehension by another doctor. Sometimes I’m giving a lecture
on a conceptual topic in ophthalmology on topics such as understanding
how crooked eyes work, how the muscles work on the eyes, and when I
explain how that works and they say, “Oh, now I get it,” it’s very
rewarding. That’s the part of medicine that’s the most fun, at least for
me.
What obstacles and hardships have you faced as
a volunteer?
Number one is language translation. If you don’t have a good translator
you have to struggle along and it waters down your ability to work; it
takes away the ability to communicate.
What kind of traits does a medical volunteer have to have to succeed
on these missions?
I would say you need a willingness to accept some adversity. I’ve been
in places where to take a shower you have to pour a bucket of water over
your head, or where you’d eat the same food at every meal, morning, noon
and night, for a week. You don’t go around complaining about it because
it's just part of the situation of where you are.
Can you relate an experience that illustrates the rewards from doing
this kind of charity work?
Because of my specialty of pediatric ophthalmology, I’ve done quite a
bit of work with children who have strabismus, or crossed eyes, which
often can be repaired surgically. In this country, a child with a
crossed eye might be teased, but maybe less so now than years ago. But
in other countries, strabismus can literally be a death sentence. I was
working in a clinic in a small town in Bangladesh. In this town, like
others there, when girls are 16 or 18 they get married, usually because
they are pushed out of their homes by their fathers. If a girl there has
crossed eyes she will be ignored by men; it’s complete rejection. Being
crossed-eyed is so bad that these girls, when they're rejected because
no one would look at them or marry them, they commit suicide or they
become prostitutes. There's very little choice left for them. I’ve
straightened out the eyes of these young women and they tell me,
“Doctor, you gave me a life.” And they mean that quite literally. There
are women in Bangladesh now who are happy wives and mothers because of
my work.
Where are you off to next?
Libya, and then Paraguay.
VESI
Spotlight: Robert Sargent M.D.