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AIR FORCE SURGEON INSPIRED BY WAR HEROES --
Dr. Dennis Zagrodnik works in the world's
busiest trauma hospital.
Dr. Dennis Zagrodnik, center, has been
part of the Air Force
Theatre Hospital team performing thousands of trauma
surgeries at Balad Air Base, Iraq.
Story here...
http://www.htrnews.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070107
/MAN0101/701070467/1984
Story below:
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Surgeon inspired by war 'heroes'
Doctor ready to make Manitowoc home after leaving Iraq trauma hospital
By Charlie Mathews
Herald Times Reporter
MANITOWOC — In the world's busiest trauma hospital, in war-torn Iraq,
Dr. Dennis Zagrodnik has seen plenty of heroes ... and blood and lost
limbs and scorched skin.
"Many of the surgeries we do, it's as if the person was in a car
accident, was shot and severely burned," Zagrodnik said via Internet
phone on New Year's Eve from the Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, 40
miles north of Baghdad.
After 10 years in the Air Force, the 34-year-old surgeon is ready to
come back to his native Wisconsin and take off his military scrubs for
good.
He's going to make Manitowoc his family's home, become a community
physician, go fishing and hunting, and enjoy being with family and
relatives — minus the helicopters bringing in the grievously wounded.
"Put family first" is his New Year's resolution, part of his Jan. 1
"News from the Front" e-newsletter. Its distribution list includes
Manitowoc surgeon Dr. Terry Gueldner.
"I have found Dennis to be an extremely dedicated, compassionate
Christian surgeon who is really focused on being a part of the
community," said Gueldner, who will welcome Zagrodnik to his practice in
July.
The Marquette High School, Ripon College and Medical College of
Wisconsin graduate has a couple more weeks of very long days and nights
in Iraq, filled with life-or-death surgeries after the suicide bomber or
roadside Improvised Explosive Device has wreaked human havoc.
Zagrodnik's first tour of duty was September 2004 to January 2005, and,
after coming back to Iraq last September, he is due to be relieved "in
time to be home for the Super Bowl," he hopes.
He'll fly 6,000 miles west out of Iraq and finish his military career at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where he has served as director
of surgery residency.
Inspired every day
But, first, he'll continue to treat his heroes.
"What is inspirational? The injured soldier or Marine who looks over at
his buddy in the E.R. and asks, 'Is he alright?'" Zagrodnik said, with
the sound of helicopters easily heard over the Internet phone
connection.
"They're coming and going all night ... you get used to sleeping with
them around," said Zagrodnik, whose father was raised in Manitowoc, left
to go to college and raised his family in the Milwaukee suburb of
Greendale.
"Then, there's the guy on the ward with the burn or fracture who looks
at me and says they want to get back with their buddies," Zagrodnik
said.
"If you don't have your 'A' game on for them ... there's nothing more
inspirational then helping these guys out day-to-day," said the husband
of Michelle and father of Tanner, 4.
While his Iraq experiences have been intense, they also have been
rewarding and life-affirming.
"As one member of a group of well-trained surgeons, we have been up to
the challenge and are making a difference in our patients' lives,"
Zagrodnik said.
He said a major trauma center in the U.S. might treat 2,000 patients a
year. Surgeons at his hospital, which is part of Camp Anaconda, are
dealing with triple that number.
"There's no greater experience than seeing the body injured and putting
it back together," he said.
Sometimes, however, there is a need for many more surgeries post-Balad.
Zagrodnik marvels at modern trauma medicine, with stabilization of the
patient in Balad, subsequent flight within 12 hours to Landstuhl
Regional Medical Center in Germany for another surgery, then on to an
American military hospital soon thereafter.
"It's the rare person that comes to us with an isolated injury. He
usually has two or three," he said
Manitowoc beckons
"I will look back at my military experience with pride but am ready to
pass the torch on to the next group of young surgeons," Zagrodnik said.
He never thought he would spend two out of the last three holiday
seasons in a tent hospital in Iraq.
As a major, further promotions would increase his administrative
responsibilities and take him out of the operating room.
His uncle, John Zagrodnik, lives in Manitowoc.
"As he goes up the ladder they would put him behind a desk and he
doesn't want to do that," said John Zagrodnik, a retired teacher. "He
wants to take care of people, he wants to heal people."
John Zagrodnik recalls hunting and fishing with his nephew as an
adolescent. "The last time we went fishing together was on Lake Erie for
walleye and Michelle turned out to be the best fisher among us," he
said.
The surgeon recalls visits to Manitowoc from Greendale as a youth. "It
was the place of fond memories of grandparents and great aunts from
Polish Hill spoiling me with candy and cookies," he said.
"Manitowoc is the place I have always been drawn to since I was old
enough to remember," the Air Force officer said.
"Michelle and I believe it is a community of honesty and wholesomeness
with a genuine respect for family values," Zagrodnik said.
Gueldner, his fellow chest and thoracic surgeon, said Zagrodnik will be
challenged in Manitowoc. He will be doing surgeries related to cancer,
as well as intestinal operations and procedures related to peripheral
vascular disease and stroke prevention.
Zagrodnik treasures his military experiences but said it's time to move
on. "I've been exposed to something few physicians have the opportunity
to do, but community practice is what I've been built for," he said.
"I find it ironic that my dad left to go off to college many years ago
and essentially never came back but to visit," Zagrodnik said.
"Now, I am the one intending to return nearly 40 years later."
Charlie Mathews: 920-686-2969, or
cmathews@htrnews.com
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Larry Scott
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