"Everybody has something to give", says surgeon just returned from volunteer stint at Landstuhl

Dr. Jay Cook, a vascular surgeon at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, returned Tuesday from a two-week volunteer stint at a hospital in Germany, where he treated military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Photo: Mark Mulligan / The Herald.

Everett surgeon gets vivid look at cost of war

By Sharon Salyer
Herald Writer

Five thousand miles from home, and working inside the unfamiliar, gray maze of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Dr. Jay Cook watched as an injured soldier was wheeled into the hospital's intensive care unit.

...
Cook, a vascular surgeon who works in Everett, [WA] had signed up for an unusual two-week volunteer stint, to operate on service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many had been in war zones just 48 hours before.

Cook's specialty — repairing veins and arteries in areas of the body other than the heart or inside the skull — is in high demand at the medical center. Many of the injuries treated there are to the hands, chest, pelvis, feet, legs and arms, often caused by roadside bombs.

Cook participated in a national volunteer program organized by the Society for Vascular Surgery. Nearly 50 surgeons have been sent to the German medical center since September 2007, said Emily Kalata, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Doctors from across the country have volunteered, but only one other surgeon from Washington has participated, she said.

Some surgeons have volunteered multiple times, Cook said, and the program is often booked out six months in advance.

...
Cook's duties included assisting in several spinal surgeries, including one to stabilize a crushed vertebra, and conducting two procedures to put a filter in a vein to the heart to prevent blood clots from going to the patient's lung.

“I was happy, proud and honored to be able to contribute something,” Cook said.

The experience underscored to him how important it is for people to volunteer for whatever cause they believe in.

...
“There are so many things that need to get done in the world that are so worthy, it's almost overwhelming,” he said.

“If everyone was able to just give a little bit — time, talent, financially — it would really help … Everybody has something to give.”