Well-Traveled Medical Student Selected Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar

The first time Robert Caskey, a second-year student in the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, flew in a propeller plane was while he was in Africa conducting research as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar.

As the plane was taking off, an overhead air conditioning control panel dropped out as an already jittery Caskey and about 10 other passengers looked on.

“We all laughed nervously,” he said. They remained on the plane and arrived at the destination safely.

Caskey traveled by prop plane several times after that precarious situation, adding to his list of stories about his experiences in Europe and Africa. He was in London during the botched attempts to bomb the Underground transit system.

When Pope John Paul II died, Caskey was in the pontiff’s home country of Poland, and he spent two weeks on the island of Pemba, off the coast of Tanzania testing mosquitoes for an ambitious program which aims to provide every family on the island with an insecticide-treated bed net (ITN).

“ITNs are probably our strongest weapon in the fight against malaria. However they have to be used on a community level in order for their true effect to be seen,” Caskey said.

The Millsaps College graduate and son of Dr. Charles Caskey, clinical associate professor of periodontics and preventive services, de-layed the start of his second year of medical school to earn a master’s of the biology and control of disease vectors at the London School of Hygiene and Trop-ical Medicine, so he is a year behind his classmates.

“Sometimes I see my friends on the ward, and I’m sitting in a classroom,” Caskey said with a hint of jealousy. “But it was worth it. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”

One of Rotary International Foundation’s oldest and best-known programs is its ambassadorial scholarships. The yearlong program’s purpose is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries. Caskey’s scholarship was through the North Jackson Rotary Club, District 6820.

Dr. Marion Wofford, associate professor of medicine and director of the Division of Hypertension, wrote a letter of recommendation on Caskey’s behalf for the Rotary scholarship. He worked as a student assistant in the division in the summer of 2000.

“He was interested not only in conditions for which patients were treated, but real-life issues such as how to afford medication and the impact of chronic disease on families,” she said. “He had a particular fascination with virology - the study of viruses, an area he has continued to explore.”

Caskey hopes to travel abroad to provide medical care, possibly with an organization like Doctors Without Borders. That’s one of the reasons why he applied for the program, which allowed him to travel to Africa and train workers there in using the ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) technique to determine malaria sporozoite rates in mosquitoes.

When he returned to London, he took the train home and fell asleep. “I got a phone call to wake up and turn on the news,” Caskey said.

That’s when he heard about failed bomb attempts on London’s transit system, just hours after he had been on the same train line as the attempted bombings. Two weeks earlier, while Caskey was in Africa, 52 people died in suicide bomb attacks on London’s Underground transit system and a bus.

Wofford said all of Caskey’s life experiences and hard work will contribute to his success as a physician.

“We are so fortunate to have Robert as a student at UMC. He has taken a nontraditional path, thanks to such opportunities as the Rotary scholarship,” she said. “He is highly motivated, very bright, patient, understanding and a critical thinker.”

— Patrice Sawyer Guilfoyle (11-7-05)

2005-11-03 00:00:00 2752