Stuart Sabol, MD, is a Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) Clinic veteran. He just recently received his pin for 20 years of volunteering his time and experience. He is a certified otolaryngologist and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons with training in adult and pediatric ENT, head and neck surgery, facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. When he’s not volunteering at VIM, Dr. Sabol is practicing at Treasure Coast Ear Nose and Throat.
He’s a board member of The Friends of Volunteers in Medicine Clinic (FVIM), which is a nonprofit organization that’s responsible for fund raising for the VIM Clinic. Dr. Sabol officially became a volunteer three months after the VIM Clinic was established. Fred Carter, MD, co-founder of the VIM Clinic would cross paths with Dr. Sabol while in the community and persuaded him to volunteer.
Dr. Sabol recently volunteered in Honduras for a week, with Light of the World Charities. The opportunity presented itself and Dr. Sabol agreed. He was stationed at a clinic in Comayagua, which is about three hours north of the capitol, Tegucigalpa. This clinic is operated by Franciscan Friars.
Several years ago they opened a clinic with four operating rooms. They’ve been doing operations for years at this clinic and having groups from around the world spend a week there doing surgeries.
“We woke up every day at the crack of dawn. We had one day to look at all the patients and we signed up everybody that needed to be operated on. The next five days were spent doing all those cases that we had set up,” said Dr. Sabol.
Dr. Sabol did multiple cases such as thyroid cancer, tonsils, tumors, and a multitude of others. He was most impressed with the Franciscan Friars, a group of people who are devoted to serving the poor among other things. He says they sleep on a concrete floor with no air condition and they wake up every day to take care of all the people there who are poverty stricken.
“There were about seven of them. They would run the clinic, be at the hospital, and they would go out and do outreach and help with all kinds of tasks, but I never saw one of them without a smile,” said Dr. Sabol.
Stuart Sabol, MD, holding his pin for 20 years of volunteering with Volunteers in Medicine Clinic.
He loved being in Honduras and enjoyed the work that he did. They are wonderful people to take care of and they’re grateful for the care that they received.
“It was a great trip and the group of people that were there were great. Everyone had a lot of fun and worked hard. There wasn’t a lot of down time, but we all would sit down at dinner at night and talk about the day’s events,” said Dr. Sabol.
Growing up Dr. Sabol was looking into joining the Air Force and then someone spoke with him about going into medicine. Dr. Sabol graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine with honors and then he finished his postgraduate from the University of Texas Health Science Center, training in general surgery and otolaryngology.
The VIM Clinic is thankful that Dr. Sabol is volunteering his time and providing their patients with the best care. He didn’t want to be a physician his entire life, but we’re proud he made the decision to become one.