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Posted 7-22-98
CLEVELAND--The dean and a clinical professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry are co-recipients of the school's 1998 Outstanding Alumnus Award -- a shared honor that recognizes their long history of shared service, at CWRU and around the world.
Jerold Goldberg, a 1970 graduate and dean of the school, and John DiStefano, a 1972 alum and clinical professor, became friends during their dental school days, and both went on to become oral and maxillofacial surgeons.
"Through the years, they, along with their colleagues, worked to build an outstanding department, well known for its fine tradition of training top-notch surgeons," said Alumni Association President John Ball in presenting the award. "Their respective passion for helping others has taken them to different corners of the world, including Mexico, England, Ecuador, and most recently, Lithuania, all on surgical and educational missions with the goal of working with physicians, dentists, and nurses to advance the frontiers of knowledge and repair the lives and faces of children."
In recent years they've focused their efforts on Lithuania, where a half-century of Communist domination left the health care system decades behind the west. On June 21, they returned from their fourth medical mission to Klaipeda, Lithuania, on behalf of Partnership in Hope, a nonprofit organization they founded in 1993 to conduct reconstructive facial surgeries and train Lithuanian caregivers.
The Partnership in Hope team was comprised of 15 caregivers and support staff from various medical institutions including the CWRU dental school, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Clinic. Along with performing 19 surgeries, they provided training for medical professionals at the Klaipeda City Hospital, where a new oral and maxillofacial unit established by Partnership in Hope has been named in honor of DiStefano and Goldberg.
Two operating rooms and sterilizing rooms have been equipped so far, and a surgical intensive care unit is the next goal. For the June mission, the Partnership in Hope volunteers took along 10 footlockers filled with antibiotics and other medications.
The new unit is directed by a Lithuanian neurosurgeon, who has been trained in oral and maxillofacial surgery during several month-long residencies in Cleveland and during Partnership in Hope's annual missions to Lithuania. As a result of this training, the Lithuanian doctor was able to perform nearly 300 corrective surgeries in the past year between Partnership in Hope visits.
During the June mission, DiStefano and other team members also met with Lithuanian President Valdus Adamkus and the minister of health to discuss how Partnership in Hope can assist the nation in developing a modern health care system.
Ginty Sabataitis, a Cleveland psychologist and CWRU alumnus, is mission coordinator.
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