Jefferson Awards: Plastic surgeon helps children throughout world
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Dr. Jack Demos, founder of Surgicorps International, with supplies that will be shipped overseas.
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After returning from one of his many medical missions to impoverished countries to provide surgical care for children, Jack Demos creates a scrapbook documenting the trip.
When he had his active plastic surgery practice on the North Side, he'd leave the scrapbooks on tables in the waiting room for his patients to peruse. They'd be so inspired by the little miracles performed on thousands of children by his organization, Surgicorps International, that they'd end up donating to his cause, said a friend and one of his longtime volunteers, Dave Fortun.
"Our mission is to provide free medical and surgical care to people in need in developing countries," said Dr. Demos, 62, of Fox Chapel, who founded Surgicorps International in 1994. "That's basically the groundwork for the organization."
Volunteers have made more than 40 trips abroad to correct cleft lips and palates and other deformities in children.
Dr. Demos is one of seven finalists for Most Outstanding Volunteer of the Year for the 2009 Jefferson Award for Public Service. Finalists will be honored at a dinner Thursday, when the winner will be announced. The winner will go on to represent Western Pennsylvania in the National Jefferson Awards program in Washington, D.C., this summer.
The program is administered locally by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with sponsorship by Highmark, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments.
Dewey & Kaye will donate $1,000 to Surgicorps International on Dr. Demos' behalf.
Since its start, Surgicorps International volunteers have gone to 15 countries -- including recent trips to Vietnam and Guatemala -- and treated more than 3,000 patients.
On Feb. 12 -- the day after the awards ceremony -- Surgicorps volunteers head to Ethiopia, where they will perform surgeries and provide other care through Feb. 21.
First Published February 5, 2010 12:00 am
