River Parishes doctor helps Haitian earthquake victims

Courtesy Photo

Parishes Hospital, traveled to Haiti with a physician group organized through the University of Miami to provide medical assistance to the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

Dr. Sebastian Villarreal, an Anesthesiologist at River Parishes Hospital, traveled to Haiti with a physician group organized through the University of Miami to provide medical assistance to the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

“I believe the vast majority of doctors go into medicine because they have an innate desire to help those around them.  After years of training, sleepless nights, and then dealing with the economic realities of the world, those innate desires sometimes become overwhelmed with the business and political side of medicine,” Dr. Villareal wrote. “ I talked to a few doctors in New Orleans who wanted to go (to Haiti) but told me, ‘If I shut down the office for a week, I can't pay my staff this month.’

“In a world of shrinking reimbursements and rising overhead, that is today's reality of medicine.  I had the opportunity and felt this was the time to help those in need and pay forward the help we received in our time of tragedy (after Hurricane Katrina).  I felt it was my time to return to the core of why I had become a doctor . . . to help.”

Dr. Villarreal brought Saints T-shirts to the needy and is shown with two of the “Haitian Who Dat’s!” 

He was also honored to watch part of the Super Bowl with the 82nd Airborne Unit.