Karl “Fritz” Disque, D.O.’07, R.Ph., practicing cardiac anesthesiologist and executive director of the Disque Foundation, has organized annual trips throughout his entire career funded by National Health Care Provider Solutions (NHCPS), an online medical education company that provides ACLS, PALS, BLS and CPR certification and recertification. He has traveled both domestically and internationally in an effort to provide service to underserved communities. Disque and his colleagues, family members and co-workers have traveled to countries such as Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Malaysia and Costa Rica.
In May, he and a Disque Foundation team spent a week in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, an area still experiencing the tragic impacts of Hurricane Katrina and its massive scale of devastation. Most people there live in poverty and unsuitable living conditions and have little access to health care education and resources. The team joined with LowerNine.org, an organization focused on rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward, to assist in restoring homes by painting, dry walling, installing flooring and doing yard work.
Disque and the team also held several free local CPR clinics and seminars to prepare locals to save a life in the situation of sudden cardiac arrest.
“The opportunity to provide more comfortable and safe living conditions to those living in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans with LowerNine.org is something we feel so honored to be a part of,” Disque says. “New Orleans welcomed us with open arms and a desire to learn that we never could have expected. I feel extremely proud of both the team and the compassionate residents of New Orleans who are now equipped in the case of cardiac emergency.”
