It is estimated that four times as many people were injured in the South Asian tsunami as were killed. To aid survivors, a team of orthopaedic surgeons traveled to Sri Lanka this term, armed with orthopaedic implants and other equipment purchased with contributions from Pitt students, faculty, and staff.

The fundraising effort began when students, fellows, faculty, and staff of Pitt’s Musculoskeletal Research Center along with Pat Loughlin, interim chair of the School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, contributed a total of $2,500. That gift was matched by Savio L-Y. Woo, the W.K. Whiteford Professor in the Department of Bioengineering, and his wife, Pattie, raising the total to $5,000. The Asian American Institute for Research and Education, in turn, matched that amount, increasing the total contribution to $10,000. Finally, Harvey Borovetz, chair of the Department of Bioengineering, committed $1,000 from his department to take the total to $11,000.

The money was given to the Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA) because contributors believed APOA “could do more good than any other organization to help those that need significant orthopaedic care,” said Woo. “The members of APOA under the presidency of Professor Myung-Sang Moon of South Korea have the expertise and closest ties to patients suffering from orthopaedic trauma.”

Woo said he hopes the Pitt contributions to APOA will inspire more support for tsunami victims. “The small sum of donation from us may serve as a pilot light to generate a much larger source of donations from the members of APOA,” he said.

One of the doctors who went to Sri Lanka, K.S. Sivananthan, past president of the APOA, concluded that the lack of orthopaedic expertise in Sri Lanka leaves many cases that need to be attended to. He observed that the country’s civil war, in addition to the tsunami, has burdened the population with many orthopaedic problems and neglected trauma cases.