Dr. Lovejoy’s Sustainable Humanitarian Work Honored by AAOS

John Lovejoy Jr., M.D., is a retired orthopedic surgeon. But he’s not done being a physician.

While serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, he saw how he could make a big difference in improving healthcare in the developing world. This was not unusual. His father, also an orthopedic surgeon, was a noted humanitarian and during the holidays father and son would send out medical bills to patients in financial straits with a note that said “Merry Christmas, Paid in Full.”

But it was in the Caribbean where Dr. Lovejoy would leave his biggest mark in a story reminiscent of the parable of teaching a starving person to fish.

2015 AAOS Humanitarian Award

For that work, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) presented Dr. Lovejoy with the Humanitarian Award during the Ceremonial Meeting on March 26, 2015 at the AAOS annual meeting in Las Vegas.

For more than 40 years Dr. Lovejoy, of Jacksonville, Florida, travelled to Haiti, the poorest nation in the Caribbean, to provide medical care. He also frequently travelled to the island of Grenada to upgrade medical equipment, build an arthroscopic system and create an exchange program to bring Grenadian surgeons to the U.S. for training.

Work in Haiti

But it was in the aftermath of the killer earthquake in Haiti in 2010 that he really made a difference. According to AAOS Now, five days after the disaster, Dr. Lovejoy and his surgical team returned to Haiti to provide medical relief efforts at Hôpital Sacré Coeur. His team transformed the 73-bed hospital into a more than 600-bed facility similar to a mobile Army surgical hospital (MASH) unit.

On an average trip to Haiti, Dr. Lovejoy and team saw approximately 50 to 100 patients and performed 20 to 30 surgeries in a week. After the earthquake, the surgical team, including his son Dr. John F. Lovejoy, a third generation orthopedist, operated on more than 180 cases that first week and more than 150 cases with approximately 400-500 patients during a second trip two weeks later.

What really got to him in Haiti was seeing all the amputations in children because of delays to immediate medical care. “There were 50, 000 amputees [in Haiti] and 10, 000 more after this earthquake. And, there are zero certified prosthetists in the country, ” Dr. Lovejoy told AAOS NOW.

He had to teach the Haitians how to help themselves. So when he got back Jacksonville, he designed, funded, and built a state of the art prosthetic lab and shipped it to the hospital. He recruited U.S. orthopedic teams to teach and correct limb deformities, and trained local orthopedists to deliver a higher level of care.

Train Haitians to Treat Haitians

He trained Haitians through the Crudem Foundation and personally sponsored two Haitian students’ enrollment in a three-year college degree program at Don Bosco University in Prosthetics and Orthotics. The students worked in the prosthetic lab learning the trade, and graduated in February 2015. His colleague Dr. William A. Sims said Dr. Lovejoy and teams also planned, designed and built a physical therapy building and program adjacent to the hospital.

To this day, amputees at the hospital are fitted with prostheses, and Haitians continue to train to become certified prosthetist orthotists. Dr. Lovejoy told AAOS NOW that “To make things sustainable, we needed to train Haitians to treat Haitians. We’ve given them the tools. We’ve given them the facility and the educational opportunities so they can learn the skill, and then treat their own people.”

A Family Affair

In nominating Dr. Lovejoy, John S. Kirkpatrick, M.D., wrote: “Dr. Lovejoy selflessly contributes his time and resources to benefit the less fortunate and mentor future orthopedic surgeons.”

It doesn’t look like the Lovejoy family’s humanitarian efforts will end any time soon. Dr. Lovejoy’s son is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Florida, who accompanies his father on medical missions to Haiti.

“As my children grew up, I began to involve them in my humanitarian efforts. Like me, they appreciated all they had when they saw how others struggled for existence, ” Dr. Lovejoy told AAOS NOW. “My wife supported me and encouraged the kids’ involvement. Working together on these projects drew us closer together.” Over the years, he estimates he has recruited more than 500 orthopedic surgeons and other medical practitioners to participate in medical missions.

“Orthopedic surgeons are very giving people. I encourage them to give back to their communities and help others who cannot afford their care, ” he said.