{"id":11772,"date":"2023-05-05T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T12:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=11772"},"modified":"2023-05-03T10:25:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T14:25:49","slug":"vascular-surgeon-provides-care-for-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2023\/05\/05\/vascular-surgeon-provides-care-for-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Vascular Surgeon Provides Care for Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Grenada, Dr. Christian Rodriguez volunteers to help patients in need. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It had been 26 years since Christian\nRodriguez \u201993 had walked the inviting\nbeaches of Grenada. He began his medical\nstudies there at St. George\u2019s University\nbefore transferring to the Ponce School of\nMedicine in Puerto Rico to complete his\ndegree. On his first return visit to Grenada\nlast spring, he looked up an old professor,\nC.V. Rao, who suggested Rodriguez join him\non his early morning seaside stroll.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Illustration by
Bruce Morser \u201976 <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rodriguez is the chief of vascular surgery for the Veteran Affairs\u2019 Maine Health Care System. Vascular surgery is exquisitely meticulous work. \u201cConnecting arteries and veins requires something close to perfection,\u201d 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\u2019t 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. \u201cI agreed right away,\u201d Rodriguez recalls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2014 a surgical supply company with which he had worked \u2014 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cMy new friends at Colgate taught me the American way of life and helped me integrate into the culture,\u201d he recalls. \u201cEveryone was so supportive. The connections I made became lifelong friendships.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cI\u2019m really proud and humbled to care for these veterans,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen 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,\u201d he says. \u201cThese 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Grenada, Rodriguez didn\u2019t 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. \u201cThere is an ongoing need for dialysis access and other vascular procedures for patients in Grenada that will always be there.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Grenada, Dr. Christian Rodriguez volunteers to help patients in need. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":12424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[1474,293,1473,968,1475],"coauthors":[1439],"class_list":["post-11772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-grenada","tag-political-science","tag-vascular-surgeon","tag-veterans","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-33S","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/05\/Colgate-Portraits-Rodriquez_edit.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11772"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12425,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11772\/revisions\/12425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11772"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}