Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine

Information may not be reliable

A native of New England, Dr. Waugh earned his bachelors degree at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. He went on to complete his fellowship training in hand surgery at Childrens Hospital Boston and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.

Dr. Waugh treats all hand and wrist problems in patients of all ages. He has a special interest in occupational and sports hand injuries, nerve problems, and basal joint arthritis.

Dr. Waugh is now taking appointments for all hand conditions. His professional interests include nerve problems, upper extremity trauma, basal joint arthritis, carpal instability, rheumatoid arthritis and microsurgery.

Certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, Nathan earned his master of medical science degree in the physician assistant program at the University of New England in Portland after graduating, cum laude, from Franklin Pierce University with a bachelors degree in biology.

Nathan has treated patients of all ages for a full spectrum of care in varied settings during his clinical rotations in general surgery, rural family medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, emergency medicine, and orthopedic surgery.

Nathan is a member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants and the Downeast Association of Physician Assistants. A former certified emergency medical technician (EMT); Nathan is certified in acute care life support (ACLS) and basic life support (BLS).

Nathan works closely with Dr. David Thut and Dr. Robert Waugh at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine. He has a special interest in trauma, fractures, and sports medicine. Nathan has privileges at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover and Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester.

Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine has an office in Lee, near the traffic circle, for additional convenience.

Mention our Lee office when making your next appointment and experience our new facility firsthand.

The poverty in Haiti is nothing new to Dr. Charles Blitzer, a surgeon at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine in Somersworth. He has seen such poverty in many third world nations over the years in his travels on medical missions. It is the devastation he didnt anticipate during his recent trip to Haiti.

The scale of the destruction is hard to comprehend, says Dr. Blitzer. How Haiti will move forward from this will be a spectacular challenge.

Dr. Blitzer and Bronna Eckleman, physician assistant at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine were joined by an OR scrub tech from Wentworth-Douglass Hospital for a weeklong mission to provide much needed orthopedic care in earthquake ravaged Haiti. Sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, the team joined a dozen other clinicians through the University of Maryland to live in a small house equipped with two beds, no hot water, and infrequent electricity while working at a makeshift O.R. situated upon the remains of a hospital lab. Nearly 30 hospital staff and 80 patients remain buried beneath the hospital rubble where tents have been erected to house patients and clinics where the former hospital once stood in Port Au Prince.

Although getting an x-ray requires patients with wheelchairs, walkers and crutches to climb over a bridge made out of an old door, through rubble and the crumbling hospital, Eckleman never heard a complaint. In fact, patients were extremely grateful, says Eckleman.

Prior to the earthquake, Haiti had only 42 orthopedic surgeons serving 9.7 million people. Two of those surgeons were killed in the earthquake and another left, leaving 39.

The team saw many patients who needed earthquake follow up as it can take several months to recover from these types of injuries. However, they were surprised at the amount of non-earthquake related problems they saw, as a result of no real ongoing medical treatment.

We saw a 22 year old man that came in on crutches two months after a motorcycle crash with a hip and two pelvic fractures, says Eckleman. Two months! With no pain meds and no treatment.

Dr. Blitzer fixed the fracture, but they had to leave the patient overnight in the hospital with only his family to care for him with IV fluids and minor pain medication.

An unexpected challenge the team faced was the deeply rooted aversion of the Haiti people to amputation, for any reason. There is a great stigma attached to losing a limb in Haiti, says Dr. Blitzer. When hundreds of thousands of people where injured immediately following the earthquake, many were initially treated with amputation. While these were life saving procedures, many Haitians apparently did not consent or because of the poor communication, were not well understood before the operation.

A backlash developed that a poor Haitian seen by a white doctor would get a limb chopped off, says Dr. Blitzer.

He recalls the story of a young boy with badly crushed feet seen on a Navy ship. The boys mother could not bring him back to their village without feet and told the physicians to keep her son alive with his feet or let him die.

Many times when patients are faced with a similar choice, they never return for the surgery.

The O.R. facility was another challenge. It is a lot less sterile than desired, says Dr. Blitzer. Lizards and huge spiders commonly crawled along the walls during surgery. Good O.R. help is in extremely short supply, adds Dr. Blitzer.

Kidnapping, once a major problem in Haiti, has resurfaced as a threat to overseas visitors, adding yet another challenge.

The prisons and government offices were flattened by the earthquake, freeing all those who had been jailed for kidnapping, says Dr. Blitzer. People who are kidnapped in Haiti are not treated nicely some are murdered. It is for this reason that all medical travel was done in a convoy and an armed guard stood at their gate preventing anyone from entering or exiting their house. Dr. Blitzer found himself confined with other medical providers, unable to go to the regular hospital for two days, following a kidnapping threat.

Staying in small quarters with fourteen people in 100 heat can get tense, says Dr. Blitzer.

Eckleman was reminded of Haiti during our summer heat wave. In Haiti I would be perspiring over the patients while I changed their bandages, but the difference is that here I can easily escape from the heat with air conditioning, she says. And I know that on my worst day, I have it easier then 99% of Haitians, and I am grateful.

Bronna Eckleman, Physician Assistant at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, treats a patient in a make-shift recovery room in Haiti.

Dr. Charles Blitzer, Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, stands in what remains of the hospital in Haiti.

Our newly expanded Somersworth office is now open! Bigger building, better customer service.

Imagine a place where you can go for any orthopedic problem, be seen by an experienced orthopedic professional - and be treated without having to go anywhere else. That's precisely what we've created at Seacoast Orthopedics & Sports Medicine.

We have listened to our patients and expanded our space to make the experience in our office as private and pleasant as possible. Our new entrance is just to the left of our old entrance. As always, you will find complete head-to-toe orthopedic care at our facility provided by the most respected orthopedic team in the Seacoast.

For appointments at our newly expanded Somersworth office or in Lee, please call (603) 742-2007 or (800) 429-5002.