From Dr. Michelle Spring, Interplast Webster Fellow:
This is a photo of me and Dr. Shafquat Knundkar, Interplast surgical outreach director in Bangladesh and the chief surgeon for this trip. We are performing a cleft lip repair on a little baby boy. I am learning a lot from Shafquat and Dr. Joe Benacci, the other volunteer surgeon (from Wisconsin - my home state!). They both have a lot of experience with clefts, and we have seen many patients for very complicated revision surgeries, as well as burns. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hein (shown sitting at the left), is from Vietnam and is a very active Interplast partner. It is so interesting and rewarding to work with medical people from other countries, as one team.
I am starting to mix up Spanish (very poor Spanish, I might add) and English when I speak, which probably happens to everyone. Esther has been great as the translator - she and Maggie have worked very hard, as has everyone else. I bought a headlight from REI before my trip, hoping that it would be bright enough to operate with, but unfortunately the battery life is too short and it is only bright enough to read with. The lights in the operating room leave a lot to be desired, but we are getting along fine.
Comments