Paul Martel’s body of work has earned him, and the people he helps, the ultimate prize.
Paul Martel (left) watches over a surgery at Hospital FIBUSPAM in Riobamba, Ecuador. Martel has funded the entire project since he started it 25 years ago. “I was glad to have done it and I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said. Courtesy photo
By Tracey Weiss
Years ago, Paul Martel was in Riobamba, Ecuador, helping doctors care for sick and injured children when he thought, “this would be an interesting place to start a clinic.”
Little did he know at the time that that his vision of a clinic would turn into an around-the-clock, four-story hospital called Hospital Fundacion Internacional Buen Samaritano Paul Martel, more commonly known as FIBUSPAM.
In September, Martel’s years of work earned him the “Invest in Others 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award” and a grant for his humanitarian work in Central and South America. The award is given annually, along with a check for $100,000, to the winner.
Paul Martel accepts the “Invest in Others 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award” and grant for his humanitarian work in Central and South America. The award is given annually, along with a check for $100,000, to the winner. From left, John Hyland, Board Chairman, Invest in Others, Martel, and David Guacho, Executive Director, Hotel FIBUSPAM, Riobamba, Ecuador. Courtesy photo
The Invest in Others Awards program recognizes the charitable work of financial advisors in communities across the country and around the world. Among the five award categories, Martel won the most prestigious of them all.
It isn’t the first time he has been nominated for an Invest in Others award, either. Martel was also a finalist for the Invest in Others Global Community Impact Award for his charitable work with FIBUSPAM in 2017.
Martel has funded the entire project since he started it 25 years ago. “I was glad to have done it and I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said. “My main goal now, is to see it doesn’t stop with me. I’m 72 and I want this thing to live forever.”
He has started an endowment fund to keep the hospital going. “Ten percent of the $100,000 will go into the endowment fund. The rest will go to the things we need; equipment like a new blood analysis machine.”
Sarah Marjane, executive director of PACH (Partners for Andean Community Health), the U.S. nonprofit Martel founded to support his work in Ecuador, was not surprised Martel won over the other two extremely qualified nominees. “I thought he was a shoo-in,” she said. “He’s dedicated his whole life to helping others. His investment in the people has really come full circle. It’s well-deserved. Paul is so special. What makes him unique is his ability to connect with people. He really listens and internalizes people’s perspectives. He understands their needs.”
Indeed, Martel’s dedication to his business and his foundation is impressive. He is the president of YHB Investment Advisors, which he founded in 1989, to offer client-centric investment management services. YHB has been in town for 35 years.
He and his wife, Terry, have lived in Simsbury for more than 40 years. It was there 25 years ago that the couple started to take in children flown from Ecuador for burn care and heart surgery. “We would take them in and act as parents,” he said. “It was always moving and meaningful.”
From there, he trained with a group that ran surgical missions in the region. And that was when it hit him, when he found himself “in the slums of Carta Jena,” helping a surgical team there.
“I’ve been involved with thousands of surgeries and hundreds of kids coming in for care,” he said. But one case struck a nerve: a woman brought her 4-year-old daughter to us,” he said. “She had been hit by a car and had not had any medical care for two months. Our team managed to save her leg and with Shriners Hospital’s help, she came [to the U.S.] and they rebuilt her leg. I was tired of swooping in and out and decided I wanted my own facility there.”
In 2007, he started the clinic with some space donated by a local church. Three years later, he purchased some land next door and the building began. In 2014, he founded PACH.
Hospital FIBUSPAM in Riobamba, Ecuador, is an around-the-clock, four-story hospital founded by Paul Martel. He recently won a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the population there. Courtesy photo
In addition to supporting the hospital, PACH works to bring volunteer medical teams to the region, traveling through towns to provide care to those in need, making connections, and securing much-needed equipment for the hospital. Its mission is “to foster sustainable health care systems and communities in Andean Ecuador by providing education, resources, and enduring solutions, along with global partners, to improve Andean community health and wellbeing.”
In 2021, the clinic FIBUSPAM was officially designated a hospital and performed hundreds of surgeries and treated thousands of patients. Martel celebrated that success by doing a 32-mile trek in Nepal with his sons, Christopher and Mikey, and two Sherpas. He raised $18,000 for the cause.
Martel gets down to the area four or five times a year, and said he speaks “passable” Spanish.
“Riobamba was the right place to put the hospital,” he said. There’s extreme poverty there.” So much so that the emigration of people to the U.S. is around 5 million, which is roughly 25% of the population. Riobamba is 120 miles south of the capitol Quito in the Andean mountains.
“Seventy percent of the province is indigenous,” Martel added. “It has its own dynamics. They have been hated for centuries, so it’s not unusual to lose a family member because they are refused treatment. So the whole idea of the revival of the indigenous people and their re-emergence (the hospital) is a part of that. At the hospital, you can go and be treated with respect.”
The hospital offers 23 medical specialties. According to the website FIBUSPAM.org, “In addition to our general practitioner, we also provide specialized surgical care in the areas of ENT, ophthalmology, gynecology, vascular surgery, urology, dental care, and general surgery.”
Martel added that other reasons the hospital is so important is because of the reality of political life in South America. “We have doctors and nurses from Bolivia, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. We’re glad to be a home for them. These are humanitarians and all they want is a place to live and to work. It’s gratifying to me to be able to provide a home for them.”
There have been hundreds of moments that he can never forget, but one that comes to mind is of Miriam Roldan, 7, blind due to congenital cataracts in both eyes. The most important specialty the hospital offers is ophthalmology, “an area where we really shine,” Martel said. “It’s also the most equipped and most needed.” Riobamba is one of the closest places to the sun. “Because of the radiation, a large number of residents there have cataracts.
Miriam Roldan, 7, pictured with her parents, was blind due to congenital cataracts in both eyes, until surgery at Hospital FIBUSPAM reversed the blindness. When the bandages were removed from her eyes, she walked to her mother. It was an emotional moment. Courtesy photo
“Miriam never saw her parents or her family,” he continued. “Surgery was difficult. We took care of her. The next day, the doctor came to take off the bandages. She was sitting in my lap, and when the bandages came off, she could see, so she got up and walked to her mother. That was a moment where we were all crying and hugging each other.”
Hospital FIBUSPAM, according to Martel, is one of the beating hearts of Riobamba.
“Everyone knows it and feels safe going there. Ask a cab driver to take you there and they say, “oh, of course I know where that is,” Martel said.
The hospital exists because Martel won an award in 2010. “I won an award for $15,000 and it made a difference at the time,” he added. “Were it not for that $15,000, we would not have a hospital today.”
With the endowment being created now, he is hopeful the hospital will carry on without him someday. “I think it will continue and I’m grateful for every moment,” he said.
For more information, to donate or volunteer, go to www.partnersforandeancommunityhealth.org or FIBUSPAM.org.
A version of this article previously appeared in the December 2023 issue of West Hartford LIFE.
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