Dr. Bobby MacGuffie

Dr. Martha “Bobby” MacGuffie, 87, pioneering surgeon and founder of SHARE, died in Nyack, NY on March 7, 2011. Known as “Domtila Awiti” or “the grandmother picking up children by the side of the road,” MacGuffie founded the Society for Hospital and Resources Exchange (SHARE) to bring help and hope to Kenyan children affected by the AIDS epidemic.

After being the first female reconstructive surgeon to graduate from Columbia Medical School, MacGuffie established a private medical practice in her home in Rockland County and raised eight children. Credited with a “hands on” approach to medicine that often had her among the first responders in an emergency, MacGuffie was legendary for the countless lives that she saved or transformed in the county. She started the burn unit at Nyack Hospital, and among her medical advancements was developing a “waterbed” that eased the notorious pain suffered by burn patients. In the early 1980’s, after losing her two youngest sons due to AIDS tainted blood transfusions, MacGuffie traveled to Africa, to the heart of the epidemic, to learn about the deadly disease and to see how she could help. In 1987, she founded SHARE, a nonprofit organization comprised of doctors, nurses, paramedics, business, and lay people who volunteer their time to work toward a common goal to help children and communities in Kenya, Africa. In Kenya, MacGuffie and SHARE volunteers opened Double Joy Farm orphanage, created mobile clinics, built medical facilities, trained local medical providers, and developed a women’s empowerment project.

MacGuffie’s work in Africa also involved volunteering with AmeriCares in Rwanda in 1994, as a campaign of genocide decimated the country and endangered all who traveled there. “She just rolled up her sleeves and started performing surgery in the clinics we set up. There’s no telling how many lives she saved,” Anne Weirether of AmeriCares told The Journal News of Westchester & Rockland Counties in 2007, when SHARE marked its 20th anniversary.  

In 2008, at the age of 84, MacGuffie closed her private medical practice and retired to be cared for by her daughter, Pamela Hudson.