Dr. Garrity honored with first-ever Legacy Award

By Correne Martin

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.” This quote, from British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat Benjamin Disraeli, fits perfectly with the health care endeavors Dr. Mike Garrity, of Prairie du Chien, instituted in Ukraine more than a decade ago. On March 26, Garrity was presented the first-ever Legacy Award from World Services of La Crosse for his lifetime achievements in Prairie du Chien, La Crosse and internationally.

Prior to Garrity’s retirement as a family physician from Gundersen-Lutheran (now Gundersen Health System) on Jan. 28, 2000, he was asked by the president of World Services if he would be interested in dedicating a couple weeks of his time and expertise each year toward improving health care in Ukraine. He agreed and, just weeks after his last day on the job, Garrity found himself on a plane to Eastern Europe.

He joined the La Crosse International Health Partnership of Gundersen-Lutheran hospitals and clinics, St. Francis Hospital, UW-La Crosse, Western Technical College and Viterbo College. The partnership provided doctors, nurses, lab technicians medical equipment personnel and administration to serve in advisory roles for the advancement of the country’s health care system.

“Our focus was primary health care, student mental health and emergency care,” Garrity explained. “The Ukrainians fixed up their clinics and we taught them how to use them. Between 2000 and 2004, I made nine trips to Ukraine and they made about nine trips here.”

Garrity said, when he arrived, Ukraine was in a state of regeneration following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. “The U.S. had about 17 different medical programs they sponsored over there and we were one of them,” he stated, pointing out that his team’s volunteer work was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

In Kharkiv, Ukraine, the nation’s second-largest city (population 1.43 million), Garrity and his fellow physician, Kermit Newcomer, also retired from Gundersen of La Crosse, as well as their team helped create a family medicine education program at Kharkiv Post Graduate Medical Academy. Nearly 650 family practice physicians were trained there, resulting in major reforms to the Ukraine health system.

“We worked from the ground up,” Garrity said. “We did a lot of lecturing on topics like how to do studies, quality improvement and evidence-based medicine.”

The team also worked with Ukrainian physicians to develop clinical guidelines to assist in quality patient care. The results were significant. The rate of infectious diseases along with ambulance calls and the number of patients requiring hospitalization dropped in half. More people visited clinics for health care, and illnesses were diagnosed earlier. In fact, as a result of the work of these professionals, late-stage cancer diagnoses decreased by 75 percent.

Another of Garrity’s major focuses in Ukraine was on Korobochkino, a small farm village of in the countryside. Garrity’s influence helped village leaders realize the importance of upgrading their health care clinic, including adding running water, toilet facilities and more, ultimately becoming a model for about 230 rural clinics in the Kharkiv Oblast (province). “The clinic served about 3,500 to 4,000 people but the town was around 2,800,” he pointed out. “They had been seeing about 50 people a day with no running water.”

Garrity described a typical day there. “Every day, we had meetings around 8 a.m. We would decide on how to remodel the buildings and get the equipment in there,” Garrity recalled. “The availability of medicine was so different than in the United States. They were way behind, as far as being able to provide care. But once they got what they needed, they carried on by themselves just fine.”

During their mentorship, Garrity’s team also assigned the Ukrainian medical professionals two projects per year that would require them to build teams and work together. “Their doctors and nurses didn’t work together as a team like we do here,” Garrity said, explaining the purpose for the projects, which provided public education on subjects such as hypertension, obesity, farm accidents, student mental health, STDs, smoking and drinking, etc.

During his meetings with the Ukranians, both in their country and in ours, Garrity remembers being impressed by their warm personalities, their love of music and dance and their large meals. “Just working with them, I got to know them very well,” he said. “Once a week, they had a program for us that usually involved a concert or an opera.” Other than that, the trips were all business, he noted.

In reflecting on receiving the Legacy Award, Garrity was a man of few words, which was quite the contrast from his sharing of memories and accomplishments from the Ukraine. “The recognition was totally unexpected. I had no idea this was coming,” he said. “When I accepted the award, I talked about getting interested in humanitarianism. It’s something that’s been very important to me.”

In addition to his international work, Garrity practiced medicine in Prairie du Chien for 39 years—first at the Farrell Clinic and then with Gundersen. Two years after his retirement, in 2002, he began volunteering at St. Clare Health Mission (free clinic) in La Crosse, where he saw patients with chronic diseases every Wednesday for 14 years. Just last year, he cut that time back to two Wednesdays per month.

Garrity’s contributions to strengthening health care locally and across the globe have certainly been exemplary as well as pivotal toward the improved quality of life for numerous generations.

Also recognized at the March 26 World Services celebration in La Crosse were Sondra LeGrand, community volunteer, World Services Citizen Ambassador of the Year; Gary Kirking, Juneau County University of Wisconsin-Extension community resource development agent, World Services Citizen Diplomat of the Year; and Matt Squire, Onalaska High School senior, World Services Student Ambassador of the Year.