International Surgical Foundation

Welcome to the International Surgical Foundation.

International Surgical Foundation is a non-profit charity founded out of a need to provide to the impoverished population of the Dominican Republic and surrounding areas, the very best in surgical treatment of all spine disorders.

ISF is the collaboration of many dedicated professionals, who witness first hand the extreme poverty resulting in profound neglect of many spine related problems. This has left many within the population suffering from major neurologic disorders which could have been prevented with proper clinical follow up.

In Sept 2010, 6 members of one of Scottsdale Healthcare scoliosis surgical tean was invited as the first spine team to support the Surgical Humanitarian Mission co-sponsored by Fundación HOMS Santiago, Dominican Republic.  Dominican Republic shares the same land mass with Haiti.  This island nation (Haiti) was devastated by a major earthquake thus worsening their poverty.  Haiti has added to the issues facing Dominican Republic as their population is also seeking good health care and resources.  There are many countries all over the world who’s poverty dictates access to medical care, leaving in its wake many of their citizens profoundly disabled, and unable to provide for themselves or their families.  ISF’s long term goal is to expand its operation to other countries within the Caribbean and Central America.

It was the surgical mission to Santiago, Dominican Republic, that sparked the interest of this highly trained group of medical professionals in creating this non-profit organization in an effort to prevent life and limb threatening conditions from plaguing the underserved men, women, and children in the Caribbean and South America.

Our dedication to the care and treatment of those with spine related issues has extended well beyond the patients of Arizona.  Our dream to provide much needed spine related surgical services to a population whose access to treatment and healthcare is profoundly limited due to their economics, has become a reality through the development of this foundation.

 

Upcoming Humanitarian Effort

June 14-20, 2012

As many of the team members are now aware, the surgical week was moved to April from May due to a number of logistical issues.

The surgical team of almost 10 members will comprise of two surgeons, and support staff.  Our pre scheduled infantile and juvenile surgical cases will be scheduled for Sept 2012, and we will focus on the surgical treatment of Adolescent scoliosis.  These are patients who have already been screened and treated conservatively for over one year with large curves.  We alo anticipate a few adult deformity cases also.

From our work during the last 12 months, managing a scoliosis and spine clinic and two surgical weeks, we have evaluated over 150 pre-selected and screened patients with high risk problems who are now in jeopardy of neurologic issues or persistent incapacitating pain from their problem.  This screening process was performed by a local Orthopedic Surgeon who is also donating his time to help the people of Dominican Republic.

From the work that has been completed in country, we now have a number of large surgical cases that has filled the first half of our surgical week with simple and complex cases.  There will be a large clinic conducted the week before where we have already scheduled a number of other patients who have failed conservative treatment for their spine condition and will likely be added to the schedule.
We are in need of monetary support for the team members who are all volunteering their time and using their vacation time from work in an effort to help the less fortunate of Dominican Republic.  We ask for your donation for this worthy cause.  Your donation of as little as $50 will be very helpful to manage the logistics of moving people and surgical supplies over 4,000 miles.  Currently we have over 800 pounds of supplies just to cover the surgical cases we currently have scheduled.
Please help with your donation.

Spring ISF Fundraiser and Dinner -March 31, 2012

On March 31st, ISF completed our first fundraiser of 2012.  The event was attended by over 90 individuals who share the hope of ISF to help those with limited or no financial means, who need spine and scoliosis surgery; all of whom would have gone untreated without your financial support, resulting in life and limb threatening pulmonary and neurologic issues.  We were able to raise enough money to help support part of our upcomming mission in May (moved from April.  See below).

The raffles were a huge success as well as the silent auction thanks to Charity Auctions Unlimited.  Please visit us on Facebook or Twitter and provide us your comments on the event.  This will allow us to improve the event for next year.

ISF would like to give a special thanks God our creator, and to the program coordinator Heather Cardenas for her many hours of work organizing the event and thus creating a wonderful and fun atmosphere for everyone.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the funraiser and thank you to all who donated money or time to help others.

Duane Pitt MD