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It started off as a plan for a Menands Catholic couple to perform orthopedic surgery where it is sorely needed: the Cape Coast area of the West African country of Ghana.

Today, a few years later, the project has ballooned into a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with a board of 15 directors, countless donors and support from the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Cape Coast.

Only 12 physicians practice orthopedic surgery in Ghana, a country of 24 million people. In towns like Apam, families need to drive injured loved ones - if they have a car - on a three- to six-hour trip to see a surgeon for a broken leg.

Otherwise, open fractures could get infected and lead to amputations or worse. There are no ambulances or emergency call systems.

The organization, "Medicus in Christi," aims not only to launch an orthopedic and rehabilitation center in Ghana, but also to partner with teaching hospitals to create a network of bone and joint centers and teach African physicians to perform orthopedic surgery.

Accomplishing that may take a decade, hundreds of volunteers and a budget of millions of dollars.

Long-term
But "there's no limit to what the possibilities are," said Dr. Joe Marotta, founder and president. (His wife, Kathleen, is a nurse.) A doctor and resident of the Albany Diocese for 20 years, he works at Burdett Orthopedics and is chief of surgery at Samaritan Hospital, both in Troy. "It takes a certain amount of faith and it takes a certain amount of prayer."

Dr. Marotta's idea started crystallizing during Mass one Sunday at St. Joan of Arc parish in Menands, when a visiting priest from Italy delivered a stirring homily about service.

"He really struck me. From that moment on, I had a new calling," the doctor said, adding that he's been blessed with good fortune, a wife and two children: "I've never really suffered from anything. It struck me that, 'Hey, it's time to do something for somebody other than myself.'"

He approached his pastor, Rev. Kofi Ntsiful-Amissah, a native of the central region of Ghana, where the priest's family still resides. Father Ntsiful-Amissah grew up with Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

These connections to the country have proven integral. The foreign archdiocese has agreed to offer rooming, meals and transportation within Ghana to volunteers. During a preliminary summer visit, Dr. Marotta received a private tour from the cardinal.

When the doctor first arrived, the throngs of people and animals weaving in and out of traffic on unpaved roads overwhelmed him. "What have I gotten myself into?" he thought. "This place is chaos!"

After he acclimated, he learned from his visits to mission, government and university hospitals. At one hospital, a man lay in bed for a month, his leg ripped apart from knee to ankle. The attending doctor said he'd like to amputate the dead bone, but had a longer list of more pressing cases.

The next time Dr. Marotta returns - probably next May, with two dozen medical volunteers - he plans to operate on the arthritic 65-year-old nun who lived in the convent where he stayed.

In the future, he'd like to see medical staff at Samaritan Hospital and elsewhere receive paid vacation time for service trips.

Currently, Medicus in Christi's leaders are concentrating on fundraising: for example, applying for grants to the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Malta, Catholic Relief Services, USAID and Arthrex, an orthopedic products company.

Donors on board
Already, money has poured in from St. Joan of Arc parishioners; from Dr. Marotta's former and current colleagues; from alumni of his alma mater, Siena College in Loudonville; and from alumni of schools where he studied medicine, was trained in orthopedics and completed a fellowship.

Other donations abound. The Stryker Corporation will donate fracture and trauma equipment; a Medicus in Christi board member has volunteered to teach African technicians and doctors how to use the equipment. Another board member designed a website; a local law firm helped with corporate paperwork and insurance.

The biggest area of need is money for airline tickets, which will cost at least $1,700 for each traveler. Dr. Marotta is also pursuing options for shipping equipment.

"When I started two years ago, I knew nothing about this stuff," he said. This project has been the doctor's version of playing golf or buying a motorcycle during a mid-life crisis: "I've really been reenergized by this. It was a big boost for me emotionally."

And if creating an orthopedic surgery center in Ghana works out, it could inspire others. "If we can do it in orthopedic surgery, we can do it in Ghana and in other medical specialties in any country," Dr. Marotta said.

With Dr. Marotta's confidence comes a grain of humility. If Medicus in Christi doesn't take off as he plans, he still wants to use his personal time and resources to travel to Ghana and perform surgeries.

Said the doctor: "If that was all it ever amounted to, that would be good, too."

(For more information and to donate, please visit medicusinchristi.org)

(10/14/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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