A plastic surgeon goes to Nepal. What he found surprised him.

Sitting in a rickety jeep rumbling through treacherous mountainous terrain, on winding unpaved roads full of blind curves and teetering on the edge of cliffs recently ravaged by an earthquake, I began to question my decision to go along on this trip.  We were about 3 hours outside Kathmandu, Nepal heading to a small village along the banks of the Melamchi River.  The driver, who could not have been any older than my teenage son, reassured us that we were almost there.  It would be another hour before “there” became “here”! Our destination on this day was a school devastated by the recent earthquakes in that country.  Our goal was to assess the children at this school and provide medical care as needed.  I nervously glanced over to my colleague from the American Society of Indian Plastic Surgeons (ASIPS).  A dear friend and a fellow reconstructive plastic surgeon from San Diego, Dr. Batra.  It was as if I could read his mind.  “What the heck are we doing .. we are plastic surgeons..we belong in the operating room NOT rumbling through earthquake ravaged mountains of Nepal!” The last few days, we were doing exactly that.  Having arrived from the U.S., we were working in a hospital in Kathmandu doing what we do best, reconstructive surgery.  We were in the operating room, our comfort zone where we do our work.  Burn injuries, crush injuries, poorly healing wounds requiring reconstructive surgery, skin grafts, scar contracture release...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Surgery Source Type: blogs