In Grenada, Dr. Christian Rodriguez volunteers to help patients in need.
It had been 26 years since Christian Rodriguez ’93 had walked the inviting beaches of Grenada. He began his medical studies there at St. George’s University before transferring to the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico to complete his degree. On his first return visit to Grenada last spring, he looked up an old professor, C.V. Rao, who suggested Rodriguez join him on his early morning seaside stroll.
Bruce Morser ’76
Rodriguez is the chief of vascular surgery for the Veteran Affairs’ Maine Health Care System. Vascular surgery is exquisitely meticulous work. “Connecting arteries and veins requires something close to perfection,” says Rodriguez. One important and common procedure vascular surgeons perform is creating safe entry ports in kidney disease patients for dialysis treatment; another is bypass surgery to reduce stroke risk. But vascular surgeons are in short supply. As Rao and his former student chatted, Rao mentioned that there wasn’t a single vascular surgeon on the island, and asked if Rodriguez would be willing to do a brief volunteer stint at Grenada General Hospital to help patients there. “I agreed right away,” Rodriguez recalls.
The plan was for him to return to Grenada in October. To make the trip a success, Rodriguez first needed the proper equipment, so he contacted a representative at Scanlan International — a surgical supply company with which he had worked — and the company offered to donate $37,000 worth of equipment to the mission. During his week at Grenada General, Rodriguez performed surgeries, treated more than 30 patients, and consulted closely with medical teams at the hospital. Since his return, Rodriguez has kept in touch with colleagues in Grenada to advise on follow-up care for patients.
Born in Lima, Peru, Rodriguez also lived in Bahrain and attended high school there at the American School, where a guidance counselor recommended Colgate to him. “My new friends at Colgate taught me the American way of life and helped me integrate into the culture,” he recalls. “Everyone was so supportive. The connections I made became lifelong friendships.”
At the VA Maine Health Care facility in Augusta, in addition to performing surgeries, Rodriguez works in outpatient clinics, and he also runs a clinic at a satellite hospital in Portland. “I’m really proud and humbled to care for these veterans,” he says. “When I was at Colgate, I took classes in political science and came to learn more about American democratic principles, which I thought were the best in the world,” he says. “These service members are the people who actually go out and protect these democratic principles and our institutions, and they deserve the best care we can provide them.”
As for Grenada, Rodriguez didn’t wait another 26 years for a return visit. He went back in March for a second stint at Grenada General, and he says that he is committing to more. “There is an ongoing need for dialysis access and other vascular procedures for patients in Grenada that will always be there.”