Thanks to four dedicated and highly committed physicians at Columbia Hospital, hundreds of people living thousands of miles away from the 250-bed acute care facility in West Palm Beach are receiving care that would otherwise be unavailable.

Dr. Wilhelm Larsen, (left) and Dr. Albert LaTorra (right) take a moment to converse with a Haitian trauma surgeon during t heir most recent humanitarian visit to Haiti.

Albert J. LaTorra, D.O., a semi-retired general surgeon, along with Wilhelm Larsen, M.D., a Haitian native and retired oncologist, have been responsible for shipping over $5 million worth of modern medical equipment, dialysis machines, and furniture to a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The physicians paid the shipping expenses themselves, and the equipment was donated by Columbia Hospital. Since the initial shipment in October 2005, the two doctors have formed the LaTorra-Larsen Medical Foundation to allow for fundraising projects for even bigger plans for the hospital and their patients. Their dreams include building a medical school, a nursing school, a dental school, and medical clinics in rural villages throughout the country.

Mark M. Moser, M.D., a board certified anesthesiologist at Columbia Hospital, has been donating his time and money to travel to Cambodia on annual basis since 2001.

His volunteer efforts are coordinated through an international program called Children’s Surgical Center. While there, Dr. Moser trains Cambodian physicians and techs in the latest anesthesia practices and techniques. In addition, Dr. Moser has arranged for donated equipment from Columbia Hospital to be sent to several clinics and hospitals in Cambodia that could not have performed many of the procedures without the equipment.

Serge Thys, M.D, a board certified psychiatrist, has been involved with the Gaskov Clerge Foundation since its establishment in May 1999 after the death of Gaskov Clerge, a Ph.D. candidate in Microbiology at Howard University. The foundation was established to promote health, sports, education and sciences in both the United States and Haiti. The foundation, based in New York, consists of 13 members of the Board of Directors. Dr. Thys serves on the Board as the Medical Director.