Medical worker asks for
return of stolen implants

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

A medical trauma specialist says burglars who broke into her Manoa home over the Presidents Day weekend inadvertently stole boxes of medical implants headed for Southeast Asia on a mercy mission.

The specialist, who does not want to be identified, filed the police report Monday and said that eight boxes of surgical plates and screws -- the kind used to repair fractured bones -- were taken from a metal cabinet in her garage.

The instruments were taken between Sunday evening and 1 a.m. Monday while the victim was away from her house. Several boxes of the instruments were headed for Cambodia to help treat victims of land mines and those with other injuries, according to the specialist.

She says that nearly every item in the boxes is marked with her company's logo, the company name "SYNTHES" or both. She is asking that the boxes be returned to her, no questions asked.

Anyone with information is asked to call 955-8300.