Tavarua Trip Brings Doctor Lance Back
by John Kamea , Sunday People Section 09/17/2003 in the FijiSun, http://www.sun.com.fj

One of the things that San Diego doctor, Lance Hendricks, loves is coming to Fiji. In fact, the charming medic has been in and out of the country for at least the past 15 years, dipping in Fiji waters, enjoying the Pacific sunshine and carrying out community work. But his interest in. Fiji is more than the passion for sea, surf, sun and sand.

Dr Lance, as many fondly call him, has been among local rural people, touching their lives. He has been part of a team of doctors the Scripps Health System in San Diego, California who come to Fiji to organise medical clinics for locals. He was in Fiji last month to do volunteer work with the Fiji School of Medicine and it was during this trip that SUNday caught up with him. "I have been coming to Fiji since the mid 80's to surf at Tavarua Island. Each trip we would do a little more medical care for the local people there," he said, "In a few years I was bringing Fijians to my home for medical care such as cleft lip and palate repair, congenital cataract removal, diabetes complications in adults and other medical conditions."

"A two year old child, Lavenia Bola, from Nasama village in Nadroga came to our house with her father Lorima for five months three years ago for a multistage repair of a congenital bowel malformation problem."

Many may ask why he has so much time for Fiji. He says "I do it out of interest." Dr Lance's home in San Diego has been frequented a lot by Fijians who travel to the U.S. for medical treatment, that it is known as the Fiji Hilton!

Since his first trip and as many from Fiji flocked to San Diego with the hope of getting better, Dr Lance thought it light be a good idea to bring a team of American doctors here instead. "I inquired with Ministry of Health to we could bring a plastic/reconstructive surgery team to Fiji rather than bring more individuals to California. We have since brought a team to Sigatoka two years ago; and to Labasa this year.

"Linda Kwasny of Lalati Resort (Beqa) asked us to bring a cataract surgery team to Lalati which we did last year and the year before, taking care of all the people on Beqa with cataracts." Dr. Lance and his team are working on taking a cataract team to Taveuni. As part of this work he has become aware of the specialty training programs in the Postgraduate Division of the School of Medical Sciences.

"I visited Dr Joji Malani at FSM three years ago offering help from our very large staff of specialists in San Diego and that is how the Scripps Health-Fiji Alliance Program began." Scripps Health System is made up of four major hospitals in San Diego ranging from 160 beds to 400 beds. There are five clinics that serve patients outside of the hospital setting. There are also many doctors in private practice offices who send their patients to the Scripps Hospitals.

The health system serves 500,000 people, about 1/4 of the county's population. There are several thousand doctors who utilize the Scripps Health system, many of whom are specialists.

A complete range of services are divided up among the various hospitals from obstetrics, pediatrics, urology, general surgery, transplant surgery, open-heart surgery, pathology, radiology, etc. The Scripps Research Institute next to Green Hospital of Scripps Clinic is a world renowned medical research institute with several Nobel Prize winners working there. As a result there is a large staff of very highly trained and skilled academics and clinicians in Scripps Health. The yearly budget for the system; is US$1.2 billion. "Scripps Health has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Fiji School of Medicine whereby we will send visiting consultants to FSM in the Postgraduate division of the School of Medical Sciences," he said.

"We will help train the registrars in Surgery, Internal Medicine, Anesthesia, Pathology and other fields. Our staff volunteer two weeks at a time working with the FSM and CWM staff in the training programs." "We have funds to cover airfares and FSM provides housing and medical licensing. Our doctors use their vacation time to come to Fiji. We are trying to assist FSM with the program in specialty training that was set up through Ausaid. The Ausaid program set up an excellent training program but the funding for that ended last year.

Dr Lance took his undergraduate premedical training at the University of California and attended medical school at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles graduating in 1966. He enrolled in the US Navy for hiss internship where he served at the Naval Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida.

"I then entered the submarine service and had extensive training in diving medicine including a Master's Degree in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania, studying pulmonary oxygen toxicity in recompression treatment for decompression sickness," he said. After that Dr Lance spent a total of eight years in the Navy as a medical officer and then took his anesthesia training for two years at the University of California, San Diego, medical school from 1974-1976. "I have been in private practice in the field of anesthesiology since then. In addition my wife, Linda, and I have adopted eight children and cared for four more foster children over the 35 years of our marriage." His interest in children with special needs was why he adopted eight children. He admits they give him headache at times but says this is all part of being a parent.

In Fiji, Dr Lance has been able to make many doctor friends whom he admires greatly. "I think your doctors do a great work. They do all sorts of things and they have a broad knowledge of medicine," he said. "We are more specialised where as you have medical professionals who do all sorts of things because they have to make do with limited staff," he said. Dr Lance hopes to visit Fiji again shortly. He doesn't have any bad memories about Fiji.

And there are some light-hearted incidences he treasures. "I have had so many wonderful experiences working in Fiji. I'm at a loss to think of the best light hearted story! I'm known by various names at various locations in Fiji from Ratu Vuniwai at Tavarua to Vuniwai Qase on Beqa (sometimes Vuniwai Lialia there for all the joking around with the locals} to Ratu Anare or Ratu Guiguileca (forgetful) at FSM."