Shelby Star Article -
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Published on: 11/28/2004
Last Visited: 11/28/2004
Drawn again and again by the need, Barringer donates his time, drums up money to support the trips and has recruited scores to go along with him , other doctors, plus nurses and medical technicians, as well as non-medical volunteers.
For this work and much more, Barringer is The Star,s 2004 Spirit of Freedom Award winner.
Night and day
Mary and Jerry Henry, friends and fellow members at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Shelby, joined Barringer on one trip to Haiti about four years ago.
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Barringer, now 53, is blessed too.He has a successful practice as a member of Shelby Surgical Associates.He and his wife, Paula, both from Rockwell, a small town in south Rowan County, have a son pursuing a master,s degree and a daughter, newly married and teaching school.
,He feels he,s certainly had a lot of blessings,, Mrs. Barringer said. ,Mike is very compassionate.He feels a lot of compassion for people who aren,t in fortunate circumstances and where there doesn,t seem to be much of a possibility to break out of poverty.,
Mrs. Barringer, a nurse, has been on several of the trips and their children have each been once too, she said.
In Haiti, she said, ,Even with a degree of education, there are no jobs, no place for them to go.He feels he can go over there and make a difference in someone,s life.,
He did for one Haitian mother whose 3-month-old daughter was born with five heart anomalies, she said.
Surgery in Haiti for this baby girl, named Lyderline, was not possible.Barringer worked with his colleagues at Bowman Gray Medical Center to have the surgery performed there in 1995.He and Paula brought the infant to North Carolina for the operations.
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As a young medical resident at Bowman Gray Medical Center in Winston-Salem, Barringer had his first Haiti experience when he trained under a doctor who took students to the tiny island nation.
,He was very impressed by what great needs there were there,, Mrs. Barringer said, ,a Third World country so close to the United States and so poor.,
He wanted to go back, and he did, many times.
However, this year, the political unrest in the country and devastation from hurricanes scuttled a trip planned for the end of October, Mrs. Barringer said.
,He was very disappointed.,
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As teams members rotate , some volunteers have made one trip, some many , Barringer is the constant.
,I first saw him in Baptist Hospital and thought, ,He,s gung ho,,, said Dr. Johnson Kelly, vice president and chief medical officer at Cleveland Regional Medical Center.
,I,ve been told, ,Haiti is 90 percent Christian and 100 percent voodoo,, said Kelly, who accompanied Barringer about five years ago.
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,When we came here in 1983,, Mrs. Barringer said, ,he was interested in promoting emergency medical service because he felt that made a big difference in patient outcome.,
Barringer joined Dr. Avery McMurry and Carl Naman in 1983 to start his practice in general surgery.
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Barringer also championed the Level III Trauma Center at CRMC, Kelly said.
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Mike Barringer,s the catalyst for all the trauma people in the community working together.,
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B took the time to work it out with the other doctors over there (at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte), so that instead of an ER doctor taking the call for a trauma case, there is now a dedicated phone line so a trauma resident takes the call.,Though obviously a leader, Barringer won,t take the hospital,s chief of staff job, Kelly said.
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This year, Barringer is chairperson for Metrolina Trauma Advisory Committee.
,What that means is people listen to him,, Lord said. ,It,s really his passion for injury prevention to keep kids out of the ER.,
Barringer is the first non-Mecklenburg person to head the regional trauma group, Lord said.
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There were no paramedics when Barringer started his practice here in 1983, according to Lord.
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,Dr. Barringer went through all the political channels for legislative passage, did a real selling campaign with the rescue squads.He was trying to ancillate (work with) their efforts, not replace them.He had to reassure them that we were not going to affect their free services, but ensure that a trained paramedic would be riding along on appropriate cases.
,Dr. B is always there if you need him,, he said. ,He is a very busy individual but any time you call on him, he,ll make time.He,s one of the few physicians you can call and talk to him on the phone, or if you e-mail him, you get a quick response.And then he follows through.
,He,s out there with the general people helping us with preventive medicine.He doesn,t want to see all the kids and the injuries that are preventable.
,And he,s doing this all on the side, just for the betterment of the community.He,s not getting paid for it.
,You had a surgeon start the EMS program here out in the field, because he noticed what he was getting in surgery, the trauma end result.,
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,The thing that gets me about Mike is he,s probably one of the most passionate people I,ve ever met.There are not many around who cry easier than I do.
,He,s generous, one of the most giving people I know.I almost worry about him as a surgeon, because he cares so deeply for people.He,s so down to earth, so good, so passionate and he,s just so easy to get to know.,
Barringer also does a lot that nobody else knows, Patterson said, helping people financially, behind the scenes.
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Three years ago, Barringer began surgical missions similar to his work in Haiti in the Dominican Republic, the country on the east end of the same island, operating a week at a time, Mrs. Barringer said.
He has a January trip planned to the Dominican Republic with a group from High Point.
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