Class of '65 profile:
Jack Gardner: heavenly rewards

By Alejandra Navarro

As a physician's assistant, Jack Gardner, PA-C, has held "office hours" under a tree in Zambia, in an empty lot beside a garbage dump in Mexico, and in a schoolhouse in Nicaragua without access to clean water. While these may not be ideal places to provide medical care, for the patients – many who travel hours for a visit – it's all they have.

Gardner, today a medical volunteer, travels with teams from nonprofit healthcare organizations to provide health care to people in some of the world's poorest regions. He makes about five one- or two-week trips a year, seeing up to 125 patients in one day. Over the past five years, he's participated in clinics in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Romania, Zambia, India, Sri Lanka, and Mexico.

It wasn't always so. After graduating from Fairfield with a degree in economics in 1965 (CAS), Gardner served in the Marine Corps and then joined the Traveler's Corp. While climbing the corporate ladder, he earned a master's in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. By age 53, he held the title of chief information officer, with more than 900 people working for him. At that point, he decided to pursue a new field, to try to make a change in the world from "the bottom up." And by then, he had the financial stability to do so.

And he does it on his own dime. As an undergraduate, Gardner had considered medicine, but opted to follow a business path. As a seasoned executive, he tapped into those early leanings and listened deeply to them. After doing his "homework," Gardner applied and was accepted to the Yale University School of Medicine Physician's Assistant Program and earned a master's degree in medical science in 2000. He is certified and licensed to practice medicine in Connecticut.

Since then, the Middle Haddam, Conn. resident, has not only paid his way on every volunteer trip he's made, but also regularly buys and brings medications. His pharmacy-in-a-suitcase, however, can do little for a person who is grappling with high blood pressure or another condition that requires daily medication. Gardner can give them a month's supply of the needed medication, but many patients either can't pay for more or live too far from a source. "In those cases, I can't even start them on the meds they need," he says, slightly defeated.

In these improvised clinics, Gardner often works without many of the basic tools of modern medicine and rarely has access even to a medical lab. Most of the time, patients arrive without a written health history. Having had little or no medical attention, they instead bring multiple ailments. "One woman described each of her pains," he says, "literally from her head to her toes. Without technology, I have to rely on symptoms, such as fever patterns, to identify problems." He also runs into diseases not common in the United States, including malaria, typhoid, and leprosy. Gardner doesn't fear coming in contact with these illnesses. "What makes me scared is the idea of laying in a convalescent home wondering if it's going to be red or green Jell-O," he laughs.

As a volunteer, Gardner can decide where he goes, and with whom. In addition to dispensing care, he now instructs doctors (most recently in India and Honduras, on the latest in diabetes epidemiology, diagnosis, and management) and brings medical students on these trips. Next up are Vietnam, Siberia, and Africa.

"I struggled for a while with the issue of whether it is worth it," Gardner admits, frustrated by the limitations of providing healthcare in these deprived regions. It's his motivation that re-energizes him when doubt creeps in. "When you go on these trips, you have three objectives: 1) you are walking the humanitarian and Christian talk; 2) you are trying to make someone who has little or nothing realize that someone cares; and 3) you are trying to do some long-term good. I'm not going to save the world medically," Gardner acknowledges, "but I do the best I can."

For many of his patients, that's more than they expect. At the end of an exam, Gardner can't guarantee that he will see a patient again. And yet, his presence on that day gives them hope. That hope comes as a blessing to Gardner, who recalls with wonder the words of a woman he treated. "If I don't see you here next year," she said, "I'm going to look for you in heaven."