Dhaka, Bangladesh-- Dr. Steve Garner, Interplast visiting educator.
Last night I had dinner with a young Bengali plastic surgeon named Tarek who trained with Interplast’s Surgical Outreach Director, Dr. Shafquat Khundkar. We had a lengthy and lively conversation about burn care in Bangladesh. He works at a 50-bed burn unit which sees 250 patients a day. Many of his patients are forced to lay in the hallways due to lack of space.
Yesterday at the clinic, we saw a young child with leg burns caused by accidentally walking on burning embers. In discussing her case, I emphasized the importance of grafting her leg carefully while monitoring blood loss. Dr. Tarek shared with me that they had a patient pass away due to not only 20% burns on his body but also excessive grafting. If my whole trip does nothing more than prevent such incidents from happening again, I will be soul satisfied.
Other than my attempts at humor during lectures going over like lead balloons, all is well. I am confident that it is the language barrier and has nothing to do with my delivery. My favorite funny yesterday was the young Bengali strolling past me with a t-shirt saying "Save Ferris". World sure is small.
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