“The baby was only nine to 10 pounds because he was expending so much energy trying to breathe,” says Michael, a U.S. Navy lieutenant who was stationed in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007. “Sarah steered me toward the proper treatment.”

He and his colleagues flew the baby by helicopter to Baghdad for surgery on a large cyst in his throat. It was a risky, low-to-the-ground flight; sniper fire was a constant concern, but flying at a higher altitude may have endangered their patient. After surgery, the baby was back home less than a week later.

Michael’s role in saving the boy’s life is just one example of his courage, leadership and service during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Fallujah, he served as sole medical officer for seven separate units of more than 2,000 military members. He coordinated emergency medical care for Iraqi forces and civilians. Trained in hyperbaric medicine and the only dive medical doctor in Iraq at the time, he provided medical and dive support to an underwater construction team and river squadron working to repair a boat ramp at Haditha Dam.

“Diving in the Euphrates River was surreal,” he recalls. “We were outside the wire, outside the camp. You’re pretty exposed, but you just do your job.”

For his effectiveness, leadership and “loyal devotion to duty,” Michael was awarded the Bronze Star Medal last year.

“Lieutenant Villarroel’s commitment and insistence on participating in every emergency procedure involving one of his Marines or sailors resulted in a palpable sense of confidence and reassurance” among battalion members, the medal citation stated.

Michael cherishes the honor but avers, “There are other Marines and sailors who are just as deserving or more deserving. They are doing the hard work and making the difference.”

Both Villarroels – who in February became parents of daughter Emerson James – enlisted in the Navy as DMU students. He’s now stationed at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego; Sarah is completing a child abuse fellowship at the University of California-San Diego. “She’ll be the only pediatric forensics-trained pediatrician in the military on the West Coast,” Michael says proudly.

He’s also proud of his military colleagues. “I love what I’m doing,” he says. “Working with the Marines and sailors, serving them, taking care of your guys – that’s where you get the benefit.”

“That fellowship, without a doubt, was the biggest decision I ever made and influenced everything that happened in my career,” says Buser, D.O.’81, FACOFP. “Not only did I learn I had a natural knack and enjoyed osteopathic manual treatment, I enjoyed teaching as well. That got me into education.”

It also launched him on a career of professional leadership and service that earned him the 2010 Andrew Taylor Still Medallion of Honor, the highest award conferred by the American Academy of Osteopathy (AAO). The medallion is presented to AAO members who have exhibited an exceptional understanding and application of osteopathic principles.

“It’s great to be recognized by your peers, but it’s also humbling when I look at the people who have been given the award in the past,” says Buser. A former faculty member at DMU and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Buser has been vice president and dean of the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine since 2007. That year, he became the first D.O. to be elected to the Current Procedural Terminology® Editorial Panel by the American Medical Association (AMA) Board; that’s key, he says, because the panel has “final say” on the most widely accepted medical nomenclature used to report medical procedures and services under public and private health insurance programs.

“My work on the panel and with the AMA is driven around ensuring that D.O.s get paid appropriately for what we do,” he says. “It’s in the name of advancing our profession.”

That goal has motivated Buser since his DMU days. Past president of the AAO, the New England Academy of Osteopathy and the Maine Osteopathic Association, he has served on the American Osteopathic Association Board since 2004. He has taught extensively around the world and has represented the American osteopathic profession in several World Health Organization initiatives.

“I believe more people should have access to osteopathic medicine. We provide the best medicine and the best way to work with patients,” he says. “We’re more completely trained than any other physicians. It’s important that our profession survive and thrive.”

Later, in the emergency department of the
city’s Mercy Medical Center, he gives his
guests tips on using their stethoscopes more
effectively. During a break, he explains the
financial structure of his five-member emergency
medical practice. He poses questions they
should consider to help determine whether
one patient’s eye injury was the result
of physical abuse.

Benzoni, D.O.’83, is as comfortable
teaching as he is practicing
emergency medicine. That’s why he and his wife, Noreen O’Shea, D.O.’84, offered to host visiting DMU students Gilbert Sangadi and Juliet Babirye for a week in their home in May. Sangadi and Babirye are fifth-year medical students who participated this spring in DMU’s eight-week rotation for students from Makerere University in Uganda, East Africa.

During their visit, Benzoni also taught the students key lessons of emergency medicine: Be flexible; don’t expect for a second you’ll have control over what comes into the ER; and learn how ER doctors sleep.

“Dr. Tom gave me the book on that,” says Sangadi: Crystal Zevon’s biography about her ex-husband, rock’n’roll wild man Warren Zevon. “It’s called I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”

Not all work, no play

Speaking of fun, the Ugandan students’ hosts showed them a good time during their visit. In Sioux City, they went jogging with Benzoni, toured the area and attended a performance of “Cats.” They also accompanied Benzoni one evening to the studios of KCAU-TV, which since 2003 has featured him in a weekly “Ask the Doctor” news segment.

Sangadi and Babirye spent their seven weeks in Des Moines with Barb and Fred Hofferber, who took them shopping in Kansas City and Minneapolis’ Mall of America; fishing in Minnesota; and visiting youth at a local juvenile detention center. They went to the horse races at Prairie Meadows near Des Moines and marveled at one uniquely American phenomenon, garage sales.

“Thank God for host families,” Babirye says. “When you’re adjusting to a new place and culture, they make you comfortable and let you experience the life of Americans.”

That experience also dispelled some misconceptions, the students agree. “Most of what we know about Americans is from movies,” Babirye notes. Many of those images didn’t jive with their host families. For example, the Hofferbers have been married for 40 years; Benzoni and O’Shea, 31. The two students described meeting fun, friendly, hard-working Americans as well as those with problems.

Their eight weeks in Iowa also exposed Sangadi and Babirye to an important skill set: osteopathic manual medicine.

“We don’t have that in Uganda,” Sangadi says. “What I’ve learned here will give me an additional way of doing things and caring for patients.”