[HSF] Sympathy anyone.......

[Michael Firstenberg]

dave.
signed me up.
what group do you work with?

On 5/3/08, David Harris <drdharris at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Bob, I`ve just spent 2 weeks doing general surgery at
> an American  mission hospital in Togo, West Africa.
> Those guys prove you wrong....one man does all, and
> those guys are good medical practitioners AND general
> surgeons AND technicians, AND spiritual /
> compassionate practitioners.
>
> Its amazing how they can plan the majority of major
> surgery there with minimal lab tests, a portable x ray
> machine, and they do their own sonars. No icu or
> ventilators, but 2 fully equipped OR`s. A fully
> stocked library so the surgeon can read up outside his
> speciality before he does the unusual case. The
> turnover is high, and the patients do well and length
> of stay is short.
> They even make their own iv fluid (4 varieties),
> re-using glass plasmalyte bottles, and oxygen is made
> locally.
>
> Most anaesthetics are done with Ketalar or spinals.
> More complex cases are kept for visiting specialist
> anesthesiologists who do short term trips (usually
> with surgical specialists). An ortho team was there at
> the same time, but the long term docs manage all the
> ortho trauma as well.
>
> It was an interesting experience...There is scope to
> do cardiac sessions there.
>
> Dave
> --- Rwmfglycar at aol.com wrote:
>
> > Ani,
> > Your long and detailed answer to my comment
> > describes how imperfect our
> > system is. Your front line doctor is dealing in
> > reasonable guesses, your
> > cardiologist does not need a medical degree to do
> > his specialised task, andall
> > imperfection  is forgiven.
> > We could run the system by having a large staff of
> > ubermensche seeing every
> > patient at first contact and coming up with a
> > differential diagnosis with
> > various consequent treatment and dealing with the
> > patient long enough to be sure
> > he /she goes down the optimal path. Subsequent
> > attention would be  provided
> > by highly trained non medical technicians to do the
> > tests, remove the gall
> > bladder , place the stents etc, with other
> > specialist non doctors providing
> > comforting words and so on.
> > When I finished medical school I said to myself the
> > most good I could do
> > with my degree would be to be the best possible
> > general practioner (archaic
> > term) but on reflection I decided I could never
> > learn enough to reach that  goal
> > and so I went into surgery.
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> > **************Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight?
> > Get new twists on family
> > favorites at AOL Food.
> >
> (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)
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>
> Dr. David G. Harris, FCS, MMED,
> Cardiothoracic Surgeon
> Suite 207
> Kuils River Private Hospital,
> PO Box 1200, Kuils River, 7579, Cape Town, South Africa.
> Tel +27-21-9006411
> Fax +27-21-9006412      Mobile +27-83-3309587
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