Dhaka, Bangladesh -- Tim Sproule, plastic surgeon:
19 June (at the end of a long day): We did a very difficult case today. A young boy suffered an electrical injury and has lost his left arm just below the elbow, and also has suffered a severe injury to his right arm. We did an thorough exploration of the arm, and found that he had extensive injury to his nerves and muscles, as well as the loss of a large amount of skin. The skin coverage we provided with a flap of tissue from his abdomen--the groin flap. But the rest: the muscles, the nerves, the joints, will need to be reconstructed later. I have suggested to Shafquat that the next Interplast hand team, scheduled to come in November, make this brave little child a priority.
I was fairly tired today. The jet lag was a problem as it always is on a short trip, but I also was tired because I had gone to observe Shafquat at his after-hours clinic, where he does cleft surgery for Interplast thanks to a grant from The Smile Train. Between the hours of about 4 pm and 2 am he and his team did eight cleft repairs. Dr Khundhkar estimates that he is now doing around 600 clefts a year; I suspect that may be more than any other practitioner in the world! We discussed trying to organize some kind of exchange program for American and Canadian trainees to come and learn from him. This would be a full-circle advancement: Interplast first comes to help by doing surgery, then trains Shafquat and empowers him to start doing the work himself, and then he achieves the status of a true international expert and has our "boys and girls" come to learn from him! It is gratifying to see what an accomplished surgeon he has become...
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