DOCTORS OF INTEREST
82
Treasure Coast Medical Report
Name: John Michael Sarbak, M.D.
Age: 46 years
Family: Wife Lisa, son John
(age 12)
Occupation: Board certified
plastic surgeon
Education: B.S. from the
University Notre Dame; M.D.
from the University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine; plastic
surgery training at the University
of South Florida, Tampa, 5 years; University of Pittsburgh
school of medicine 1 year
Lives/works in: Vero Beach
Greatest inspiration: My father, Royal Raymond Rife
and Leonardo da Vinci
What most people don’t know about me: I built a water
wall in my living room utilizing 2.5 tons of Pennsylvania
Bluestone, 100 concrete blocks and 100 60-pound bags of
concrete, complete with copper waterways, plants, LED
lighting and an ultrasonic misting system.
of
PHOTO PROVIDED
Dr. Sarbak and a team of surgeons travel to Peru to perform surgery on
those in need.
The Rotary Club of St. Petersburg has been involved in all
of the team’s missions, Dr. Sarbak says. “More recently we
have become affiliated with Smile Train and Cirplast, which
is a Peruvian-based organization.” The surgeons are looking
into the possibility of a working trip to Cuba in 2016.
No Vero Beach physicians have shared Dr. Sarbak’s trips
to date, but he travels in good company, often joined by
surgeons from the University of South Florida. “One was the
president of the Greek Society of Plastic Surgeons, and a more
recent colleague is a United States-trained plastic surgeon
who now practices in Lima, Peru, and performs 10 missions
in his own country each year.”
Dr. Sarbak, who claims beach volleyball as one of his
passions, was on the Dancing with Vero’s Stars team in 2013
and, while he enjoyed the moment, he says, “Now I am
happily retired.”
/www.tchospice.org