Doctor’s good works are global

Two oceans away, in a rugged, rural region of southwestern Bangladesh, Dr. George Bagby’s name has been etched in stone.

It can be found on the cornerstone of Nalta Hospital, the only medical facility that serves this impoverished area of nearly 1.9 million people. In the last five years, the Spokane doctor has spent well over $1 million of his own money to build a hospital that has saved lives and helped thousands who suffered from traffic injuries, polio, birth defects, tuberculosis and other grave illnesses.

He also has garnered the support of hundreds of people in Spokane and beyond.

Because of his efforts, dozens of doctors, nurses and dentists have traveled to Bangladesh to provide medical and dental care. Local organizations including Rotary South and the Lions Club – even schoolchildren in the Spokane area – have raised about $100,000 to pay for a recent eye project and other needs, including an ambulance and a generator for a facility where doctors sometimes performed surgery by flashlight.

Bagby, 82, could have retired long ago after decades as an orthopedic surgeon and acquiring a small fortune in royalties from the medical devices he invented in the 1980s. Instead, he continues to evaluate welfare patients here in Spokane and ensure that medical care exists for some of the poorest people in the world.

But after 20 trips to Bangladesh since 1985, Bagby’s recent heart problems won’t allow him to make the arduous journey again.

So while he continues to give and raise funds, he has passed on that responsibility to family members and others in Spokane who have started a hospital endowment in his name.

“I’m not a missionary,” said Bagby, a soft-spoken man with a mustache and longish white hair. “I’m just interested in providing medical care.”

Born in Waco, Texas, and raised in rural Minnesota, Bagby had his interest in medicine fostered by his stepfather, a veterinarian who brought him along during calls to area farms.

Bagby thought he would follow in his footsteps, but decided during World War II that he could better serve society by becoming an M.D. The U.S. Army paid his way through med school at Temple University and later sent him to Asia during the Korean War.

The young physician spent that time at the 171st Evacuation Hospital in South Korea, treating not only Americans but Korean civilians who were hired by the U.S. Army to load trucks but ended up becoming targets.

“We met their families, and they were so appreciative of us,” said Bagby, recalling his patients. “We grew attached to them. We got to know them as people, not just patients.”

After the war, Bagby went to the Mayo Clinic for orthopedic training. During that time, he invented the first of his many medical devices – the “Bagby Bone Plate,” a self-compressing bone plate to facilitate the healing of fractures. In 1956, he moved to Spokane and established a private practice.

His experience in Korea – coupled by the memory of a grand-uncle who started a Baptist mission in Brazil – inspired him to become more involved in humanitarian work. In the mid-1980s, he started volunteering with Orthopaedics Overseas, which sent him to Bangladesh, near the border with India.

During that time, he established a deep friendship with another orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ruhal Haque, who later told Bagby that his dream was to build a hospital in his native Nalta.

Bagby used the money he made in the 1980s from the royalties of his inventions. While working with Washington State University veterinarians, he developed the “Bagby Bone Basket,” a surgical technique to treat crippled race horses that was later adapted for use in humans.

His initial contribution erected the two-story Nalta Hospital in 2000.

Now enhanced with a prosthetics and orthotics center thanks to the support of the Seattle-based Prosthetics Outreach Foundation, the hospital continues to receive regular donations from Bagby and Haque.

Before the creation of Nalta Hospital, residents of the area had to visit one of only four general practitioners who treated patients out of their homes.

“They had virtually no access to medical care,” said Doreen Kelsey, a marketing executive who met Bagby several years ago through the Rotary and has since traveled to Bangladesh to volunteer with the project. “This hospital has made a substantial impact on people’s lives.”

Bagby agrees that the hospital has indeed accomplished much, especially in the areas of prosthetics, dental care and vision.

But he’s still concerned about Nalta Hospital’s ability to retain doctors and nurses, especially since it doesn’t provide housing for the staff.

He also laments the fact that the hospital still has no female physicians on staff – a detriment in a predominantly Muslim community where women refuse or hesitate to be examined by a male doctor. Bagby said the hospital is looking for a midwife and ways to improve prenatal care.

While he’s saddened by the fact that he can no longer go to Nalta, he remains confident that family members and others in the Spokane community will continue his work.

“He has a real passion for the people of Bangladesh,” said Mary Gladhart, of Spokane, a financial consultant and longtime friend who plans to travel to Nalta with Kelsey and a team of doctors in the next nine months.

“This is a man who was successful at getting a patent approved by the FDA, which was a feat in itself, but with the proceeds, he put it to humanitarian use instead of collecting material items for himself,” said Gladhart.

Over the years, Bagby has inspired her and others to become more involved – not just with the Nalta hospital project, but with other humanitarian causes.

“At different points in our life, we meet or become associated with individuals who make us better people,” said Kelsey.

“Dr. Bagby is one of them.”