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Four locals named Health Care Heroes

Back Mountain residents are among 24 health care professionals acknowledged by The Times Leader for their work in the health care profession.

By REBECCA BRIA rbria@timesleader.com

Four Back Mountain residents were recently named Health Care Heroes for 2009 by The Times Leader.

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JUAN J. DEROJAS, M.D.

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CHERYL A. FULLER, PH.D.

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Juan J. DeRojas, M.D., and Cheryl A. Fuller, Ph.D., both of Dallas; Diane O’Brien, FNP, of Shavertown; and Susan Sordoni, M.D., of Harveys Lake, were among 24 health care professionals acknowledged as Health Care Heroes.

Health Care Heroes recognizes extraordinary men and women within the health care profession who are helping to shape the future through their work and community involvement in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Honorees were nominated by friends, colleagues and anonymous people. A Times Leader panel reviewed the nominations to determine who would receive the distinction of Health Care Hero.

The Health Care Heroes were honored at an awards ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 5 at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Plains Township.

Juan J. DeRojas, M.D.

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Juan J. DeRojas, M.D., became a surgeon to serve people.

“I grew up with it,” DeRojas said. “When I was a kid (my dad) would take me to the hospital and I’d go in the operating room with him and watch him. I was awed by it and what surgeons do.”

DeRojas’ father, of Mountain Top, and his late grandfather, both named Juan, were surgeons in Cuba before they fled the Castro regime. DeRojas and his family came to the United States in 1961 and his grandfather came in 1968.

The 55-year-old DeRojas received his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from LaSalle College in 1976 and his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in 1980.

A U.S. Army veteran, he served as a trauma surgeon in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Landstuhl, Germany and in Iraq. He was a member of a forward surgical team that performed resuscitative surgery on the front lines to save lives.

“Our job was to take care of the critically injured people who needed immediate surgery,” DeRojas said. “Probably in my professional career it is the most gratifying thing I’ve done.”

Currently working as a general surgeon at Surgical Specialists of Wyoming Valley in Plains Township, he says about 80 percent of the surgeries he does are vascular to correct corroded arteries, perform bypasses and operate on veins.

The most rewarding part of being a surgeon is helping people solve their health problems with surgery, says DeRojas. The most challenging aspect, he says, is doing a good job.

“To understand that someone has come to you trusting their life and their health and they put it in your hands, I think it’s an awesome responsibility and very challenging,” he said.

DeRojas is also the father of five children: Alma Maria, 29; Juan Carlos, 27; Michael, 22; Christopher, 21; and Patrick, 19.

“(I’m) honored that somebody would nominate me for this,” DeRojas said. “I don’t look at myself as a hero. There are a lot of heroes out there that do their job everyday and nobody knows about them.”

Cheryl A. Fuller, Ph.D.

Cheryl Fuller’s students know her class means much more than sitting in a chair and listening to lectures.

From May through September, Fuller, an adjunct professor in the nurse practitioner program at Misericordia University, and her students visit Culver Camp in Ross Township once a week. The camp is home to migrant workers who come to the area during the growing season. Fuller and her students perform routine checkups on the workers and treat chronic ailments and diseases.

“The students are always a challenge for me and that’s why I love them,” Fuller said. “They’re always challenging me to actually learn more myself.”

Fuller, 66, grew up in a small town in Vermont and attended an elementary school with four rooms for eight grades. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Vermont in 1965. She met her husband, Richard, while in college and the two married, moving to the area when he got a job teaching art at Wilkes College.

The couple’s Forty Fort home was demolished by the Agnes Flood in 1972, causing them to relocate to the Back Mountain. From 1973 to 1974, they served as missionaries at Schutz American School in Alexandria, Egypt where Fuller was the school nurse and her husband taught art.

Fuller obtained a master’s degree in nursing from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1980. In 1996, she and Robin Gallagher started Women to Women, Inc. in Kingston. The nurse practitioner-owned independent practice provides gynecological care to women, including free services to income-eligible women.

The nurse practitioners also provide care for students at Wilkes University, and prisoners at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility and the PA Child Care juvenile detention facility.

“I think one of the very rewarding things for me is seeing people who need health care who can’t afford it and can get it,” Fuller said. “That makes me feel so good.”

In 2002, Fuller received a Ph.D. in nursing research and theory from New York University in 2002. She is the proud mother of Rick, 42, and Lori Chance, 39.

“I was very humbled because I feel in particular that’s what nurse practitioners do,” Fuller said of being selected as a Health Care Hero.. “We serve the underserved. I feel like I’m representing all nurse practitioners out there who do similar things.”

Diane O’Brien, FNP

Ever since she became a candy striper at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, Diane O’Brien has wanted to be a nurse.

“I would work in the hospital volunteering and one time I saw a man who was jaundiced and I couldn’t understand what was wrong with him,” O’Brien said. “I looked it up and it just intrigued me. Everything that nurses did I was very interested in and the whole health care field and I knew it was what I wanted to be.”

O’Brien continued volunteering at the hospital throughout high school. After graduation, she went on to receive a diploma in nursing from the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital Nursing School in 1974. She also earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in nursing from Wilkes College in 1982, a Master of Science Degree in nursing from College Misericordia in 2000 and became a family nurse practitioner.

For many years, O’Brien worked as an emergency room nurse at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. Fifteen years ago she also became the coordinator of health services at Wilkes University.

“I’ve often regretted not going to medical school and not having the opportunity to go to medical school,” O’Brien said. “I like the independence of a nurse practitioner and I liked what nurse practitioners did and their roles in health care. I wanted to do more and this was something I thought would advance my career.”

O’Brien worked both jobs until three years ago when she stopped working in the emergency room. Two years ago she was promoted to director of health and wellness services at Wilkes.

“Sometimes people don’t have an idea of how many students we see in a day,” she said. “We typically see between 20 and 40 students in a day. It is typically a healthy population, but it’s never boring. Whenever you think things are going very routinely, someone will come in who’s sick and it keeps you on your toes.”

O’Brien was nominated as a Health Care Hero by her husband, Patrick, and her daughters, Kara Mann, 28, and Jill, 25.

“My mom passed away seven years ago and I took care of her and my dad’s 84…they (my family) see how I’m the caretaker of my friends, my family,” O’Brien said. “They know if they come to me for something, they could count on me.”

Susan Sordoni, M.D.

After her last child entered school, Susan Sordoni decided she wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream – to become a doctor.

“I was 45 years old when I went to medical school,” Sordoni said. “When the last of our children when off to school and I found myself with some time, I said ‘What’s next?’ I talked about becoming a PA (physician assistant) and my husband encouraged me to think about medical school.”

Now 63 years old, Sordoni received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and biology from College Misericordia in 1968. She and her husband, Andrew, have five children: Claire, 36; Patricia, 35; Jack, 34; Laura, 28; and Maria, 25.

In 1997, Sordoni obtained her medical degree from the former MCP Hahnemann Medical School.

During a period of unemployment in her medical career, she volunteered at Community Volunteers in Medicine in West Chester. She took the idea for a medical clinic back to the Wyoming Valley and was one of several volunteers who developed Volunteers In Medicine (VIM), a full-service medical clinic in Wilkes-Barre for people who have no primary care health insurance.

Sordoni serves as chair of the board at VIM. She volunteers at the clinic as a physician for half a day each week and another half a day during the week doing fundraising and other tasks.

“My most rewarding days are spent in the clinic helping folks who are really in need of the help,” Sordoni said. “They’re grateful for the help and they’re willing to work with you.”

Sordoni is currently operating a private general medical practice in Kingston. She is also the founder and chairperson of the advisory committee of the Circle of Friends Program at Misericordia University. The program helps mentally challenged women transition from graduation to the workforce and independent living.

In addition, Sordoni volunteers as a physician at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Scranton which provides forensic interviewing, medical exams and counseling to children who have been sexually or physically abused.

“For me, it was just overwhelming pride that the efforts of all the volunteers at VIM really earned this,” Sordoni said about being named a Health Care Hero. “I think the clinic has become very quickly an integrated part of this community.”