SPRING 2003

2002 Service Award Winner

2002 Service Award Winner: Nicholas Boulis, MD, for "Project Shunt" in Guatemala

Upon the eve of the selection of the 2003 Young Neurosurgeons Committee Service Award recipient, readers are reminded of the accomplishments of the most recent winner of the Service Award.

In the spring of 2002, Nicholas Boulis, MD, was honored with the Service Award for his role in treating pediatric neurosurgical patients in Central America. "It was an amazing experience for me as a physician," said Nicholas Boulis, MD, who helped organize an eight-person medical team to go to Guatemala to operate on children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida. "When we got there, we received a standing ovation from 50 families."

There was a reason Dr. Boulis and his team were so welcome. During their week in Guatemala City, the team, which included Boulis' pediatrician father, Matthew Boulis, from New Jersey, performed 13 shunt procedures on children with hydrocephalus and 11 spina bifida repairs. Another eight surgeries were done in the following weeks by local Guatemalan surgeons with materials left behind by the team.

Dr. Boulis had been encouraged to organize the trip by Healing the Children, a national relief organization. He and the team raised more than $15,000 to support the effort. Corporate supporters included Codman Johnson and Johnson, which supplied materials, and Airborne Express, which shipped 1,500 pounds of medical equipment to Guatemala City from the United States. Supplies and antibiotics also were contributed by St. Joseph Mercy Hospital and a Cleveland group called Rainbow Children.

"With more personnel, we could have done more operations," said Dr. Boulis, who hopes a way can be found in the future to find medical volunteers from across the United States to join the effort so that trips to Guatemala can be made more frequently. "You're helping children who will perish without your help."

The team left behind about 25 shunt systems for neurosurgeons in Guatemala to use. The shunts, which cost about $400 each, are prohibitively priced for the Guatemalan families whose children need help, Dr. Boulis said.

"It was a Herculean task for everybody on the team," Dr. Boulis said. "But the rewards were enormous."