Embracing Kissimmee on Orlando Medical News

Embracing Kissimmee

By: LYNNE JETER

Dr. Lucrecia T. Sta. Ana

Sta. Ana Joins Orlando Medical Community as Sole Colon/Rectal Surgeon

KISSIMMEE—Seven weeks after giving birth to her first child, Lucrecia T. Sta. Ana was back at work at Osceola Surgical Associates in Kissimmee, hitting the ground running as the metro area’s only colon and rectal surgeon. On her plate: a healthy caseload, plus writing assignments about the latest advances in colorectal surgery in time for March, Colon and Rectal Awareness Month (see Trusted Advisor in this month’s edition).

“I came to Orlando for a fellowship, loved it here, and wanted to stay,” said Sta. Ana, a Texas native. Her husband, Enrique Sta. Ana, MD, a surgeon at Dr. Phillips Hospital in Orlando, was also eager to settle down and raise a family in Central Florida.

Even as a toddler, her parents knew she was probably destined for a career in medicine. Her pianist mom often found Sta. Ana thumbing through medical books belonging to her dad, Guillermo Trabanino, MD, a gastroenterologist at Memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston.

As a teenager, she often accompanied her father on medical mission trips to Central and South America. Bilingual, she initially served as translator. Then one summer, Sta. Ana and another 16-year-old were dispatched to rural villages in Paraguay with no running water or electricity. They were each given a town and a task list that included educating townsfolk on sanitation awareness and—oh yes!—help build latrines.

“It was quite a different world living with a bucket,” she said. “The host family I lived with had three children about my age—a son and two daughters—and there was such a stark comparison to my life and theirs. I came home to my car, my friends. We’d go out to eat, go to the movies, play golf and tennis. Nobody in this village owned a car. These kids couldn’t fathom the idea of owning one, much less driving one. They stopped going to school in junior high, sometimes younger. By the time the boy was 10, he was working full-time in the sugar cane fields. The girls helped run a community store. It was eye-opening how different our lives were.”

While attending medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Sta. Ana found herself drawn to surgery. Knowing a loved one who died of anal cancer because it was detected too late, and being influenced by the director of the colon cancer surgery program shaped her specialization.

“I loved every aspect of being able to improve someone’s quality of life, that I could fix the problem with anal/rectal issues that cause people embarrassment and pain,” she said. “Those patients usually don’t seek attention for a long time. It’s embarrassing. People tend to ignore a lump or bleeding. If they wait too long, it may not be curable. If detected early on, I could make a difference. Being able to cure someone of colorectal cancer is very rewarding.”

Sta. Ana completed her general surgery residency at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, Mass., and a colorectal surgery fellowship at the Colon and Rectal Clinic in Orlando. She has had multiple papers published and is routinely invited to present at medical conferences across the country. Even though she stays busy with the American College of Surgeons, American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, American Medical Women’s Association and many other professional organizations, Sta. Ana always finds time for medical mission work. Even though she hasn’t returned to Paraguay, she travels to El Salvador once a year, and has an opportunity to see some of the same patients she and her dad have helped. When he’s older, she’ll likely take Rafael, her newborn son.

“Hopefully, we’ll continue the tradition of community service in our family,” she said.