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In Lithuania,

doctors from

Detroit perform

surgeries new

to the land.

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

THE DE TRO IT J E WIS H NEWS

Parents of Lithuanian
patients honor
American medical
professionals with a
banquet.

30

Cows graze outside
Vilnius University
Children's Hospital.

hen operating rooms at
Vilnius Children's Hospi-
tal in Lithuania get un-
comfortably warm, surgeons
open the windows to let in
the breeze ... the bugs, a few
airborne leaves and whatev-
er else.
Climate control au naturel is
unheard of back in American
ORs, which is why Dr. Claude
Reitelman, a physician at

WI

William Beaumont and St. John
hospitals, was surprised when
he traveled last month to Vilnius,
the capital of Lithuania, on a
medical mission.
"This is a new country (it sep-
arated from the former Soviet
Union in 1991) with a new gov-
ernment and very few resources.
They just don't have the funds to
provide for elaborate medical
care," he said.
Accompanying Dr. Reitelman
on his trip were Drs. Evan Kass
from Beaumont Hospital and
Donald Weston from Grand
Rapids, along with four Ameri-
can support staff and 35 boxes of
medical supplies. Their goal was
to train Lithuanian physicians
while treating young patients
with urological disorders.

Healing The Children, the
sponsoring organization, each
year spearheads many such mis-
sions to help youngsters from
countries lacking adequate med-
ical care and supplies. Usually,
HTC transports children to the
United States for treatment.
However, in some cases, it sends
doctors overseas.
Physicians volunteer all ser-
vices, and manufacturing corn-
panies generally donate medical
supplies.
"Lithuania wanted a teaching
team so that its doctors can do
the techniques themselves. In-
stead of just giving them bread,
we're teaching them how to bake
it," said Helen Salan, executive
director of HTC's Michigan chap-
ter, based in Grand Rapids.

Drs. Reitelman, Kass (both pe-
diatric urologists) and the others
arrived in Vilnius on July 1. They
received complimentary accom-
modations at a hotel owned by
basketball star Sarunas Marci-
ulionis, the Lithuanian "Michael
Jordan," who has donated many
thousands of dollars to HTC's ef-
forts.
Once settled, the American
HTC team set to work. They
treated more than 200 patients,
trained about 20 medical profes-
sionals and performed 11 com-
plex operations. Three of the
surgical procedures had never
before been carried out in all of
Lithuania.
(This is, in part, because pedi-
atric urology is a relatively new
field, having developed in the

